A Storm From the West
by xenu1275
Summary: Shikamaru thought he could run from his crimes. Temari, however, doesn't intend to let him escape ... Sequel to "Hints on the Wind." Shikatema.
1. Allies

_She came through the forest at speed, bent on vengeance. Her weapons were primed and ready, and though she wasn't yet sure exactly how she would use them, she trusted herself to figure it out when the time came. That was her way, to equip herself with tools and skills whose utility would only reveal itself later, in the heat of battle. This exemplified the main difference between her and her target, for while he was a strategist, she was a tactician. _

_ Waiting for him to come to her would have played to his strengths, which was why she was making this journey now, a mere three weeks after their last meeting. She could see him clearly in her mind's eye, crouched behind the high walls of his forest village, _planning_. Her only hope lay in surprise, in throwing him off balance and rendering his elaborate schemes impossible. She would strike him hard and fast, and there was no doubt in her mind that she would be victorious._

_ Ahead, through the tall trees, Temari of the Sand saw the towers of Konoha, where her target Shikamaru Nara waited. She sped up._

* * *

"_Shikamaru Nara: Impressive intelligence, insufficient drive."_

"_Temari of the Sand: Substitutes aggression for subtlety."_

--Notes taken by Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi during the _chuunin_ exams on the last

day of his reign

* * *

They stopped her at the gate, of course. One did not simply walk into a ninja village uninvited; she took a risk just approaching the entrance. But her silhouette, spiky-haired with a long iron fan strapped to her back, was familiar to Konoha's guards, and the pair on duty held their fire. They had reason to be glad of their discretion when they saw the identity of her companion.

"K-kazekage-sama!" stuttered one of them, a thin fellow with a shaven head. He swiftly rose from his guard post and stooped down in a low bow. "Temari-sama! The Hokage didn't warn us of your arrival!"

Temari folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. As the Kazekage's sister and the ambassador to the Leaf, she was skilled at condescension. "Your communication problems are none of our business," she replied archly. "But Lady Tsunade is expecting us, and of course you're familiar with my brother's temper." As if on cue Gaara, who had been idly examining a nearby stand of trees, turned his icy blue gaze on the guard.

"Throughout the Five Nations, there's hardly anyone who isn't familiar with the Kazekage." The second guard spoke smoothly, stepping over to join his cringing partner. "Of course that makes it convenient to impersonate him. His jutsu, though, is totally unique. It's been years since I last saw it; would the Kazekage mind giving us a small demonstration?"

Gaara's forehead wrinkled, and Temari scowled. Whip-like, her hand moved down to her belt to remove a long iron implement, which she then jabbed into the second guard's chest to emphasize her words. "People who see my brother's jutsu don't usually live to talk about it."

The man, whose long brown hair was bound into a ponytail, stood firm – evidently intimidation would not be so effective against him. In a dismissive gesture Temari flicked her wrist and caused the iron tool to open into small fan, silk painted with a crimson desert scene. Impatiently she tapped the fan against her thigh.

"Fine," she spat. "Show the man what he wants, Gaara."

"If you insist." The Kazekage's voice was as dry and eerie as his homeland. Suddenly a strange hissing sound issued from his back, from the gigantic gourd he wore. A trickle of russet sand rose from the gourd's mouth in a diffuse spiral. "Is this sufficient? Or do you need to see the Sand Coffin as well?"

At last the second guard seemed cowed; he took an involuntary step backwards and stared wide-eyed at the coiling sand. "No no," he said quickly. "This is enough. It's just that we weren't warned about your arrival, and you understand that we have to be cautious. I apologize." He bowed quickly, and his partner did the same.

"It's fine." Gaara didn't move a muscle, but his sand ceased its serpentine movement and dropped harmlessly to the ground. Then he started forward, past the guards and through the gates. "It's good to know our allies maintain such tight security."

Temari hurried after him, stowing her little fan and casting a poisonous look over her shoulder. Once they were out of earshot she allowed herself a satisfied smirk. "Actually their security was pretty lax. I'll have to talk to the Hokage about that."

Her companion turned to her with a concerned, uncertain expression that did not suit his features. "Those guards won't get in trouble will they? Because of what I did?"

She shrugged. "Probably not much. But in any case it's my responsibility if they do, so you should just forget about it."

"Okay." He fell silent, panting slightly and visibly struggling with the weight of the gourd on his back.

Temari tapped his shoulder and pointed ahead. "Do you see that round building there? The one with the red roof and the symbol for 'fire'?"

His eyes followed her hand. "Yes."

"That's where we're going. Lady Tsunade will be surprised, but I think she'll help me. She's a woman, after all, and she'll probably agree that Nara deserves a good kick in the pants." Temari was mostly talking to herself, testing out the appeal she would soon make to the Hokage.

He took in their destination, and the bright roofs and balconies surrounding it. "This place …" he said hesitantly, "is so … _colorful_. It's beautiful."

Still considering her words to Tsunade, Temari made a careless gesture. "I guess so, if you like disorder. But it's got nothing on Suna."

His gaze flicked over to her face. "No," he agreed. "It doesn't."

* * *

"That's _not_ the Kazekage!"

Tsunade was on her feet, leaning across her desk and pointing a taloned finger at the pair of visitors in her doorway. Her eyes, beneath her smooth forehead and purplish diamond tattoo, were locked on Temari's companion like a pair of flaming arrows.

"No it's not," said Temari quickly. "His name's Taro, and he's a natural mimic." She elbowed him. "Show the Hokage what I mean, Taro."

Instantly his features began to blur, sagging like wet clay and then hardening into a new form – a dusky, dark-eyed face beneath an unruly shock of black hair. Now he was a complete stranger, a tall lanky boy of about twelve, wearing the Kazekage's clothes.

Tsunade lowered her hand and straightened up. "A mimic," she repeated. "I see. But he didn't carry himself at all like the Kazekage – he's too timid. I take he's one of the clan that attacked your village a few weeks ago?"

"That's right. I've taken him as my student, and we've been working on ways to use his impersonation skills during missions. With wind manipulation I can even fake Gaara's jutsu, at least enough for someone who's not that familiar with it."

"You mean someone like a Leaf-nin?" The Hokage was looking hard at Taro, scanning him minutely. Under her scrutiny the boy flushed and seemed to shrink into himself. "The guards sent word ahead that the Kazekage and his sister had arrived, so I take it you used this boy to trick them." Her regard shifted to Temari. "I don't appreciate being deceived by an ally."

Temari was no more comfortable in the Hokage's glare than Taro, though she hid it better. Tsunade was formidable, and right now the look on her face was somewhere between disappointed and irate. "I apologize, Hokage-sama, and I take full responsibility for what I've done. But I wanted to speak with you privately, and I didn't want to explain myself to a couple of _chuunin_ guards."

Tsunade scowled. "Well you're here now, so you can explain yourself to _me_."

"Taro," said Temari without looking at the boy, "I want you to wait for me in the hallway. I'll be out in a few minutes."

He hesitated; she could hear his clothes rustling as he fidgeted. "But—"

"Go now!" she snapped. "It's not a request!"

"Yes sensei." Reluctantly he left the room, the door banging shut behind him.

Tsunade sat down heavily and laced her fingers together on the desktop. Her pursed lips and arched eyebrows spoke eloquently.

Temari took a deep breath. Now that it came to it, she was finding it difficult to speak – this entire situation was deeply personal and embarrassing. "You know that during the recent crisis," she began finally, "Shikamaru Nara discovered the infiltrators after one of them tried to impersonate _me_?"

Tsunade nodded briskly. "That was included in Shikamaru's report."

"Did he explain how he knew she was a fake?"

"As a matter of fact he was a little vague about that. All he said was that he noticed some behavioral differences."

Temari grit her teeth – she absolutely did not want to say this. But only the truth would get her what she wanted. "What Shikamaru didn't tell you was that he uncovered the ruse because my clone made a mistake. She wanted to convince him the investigation was over so he would leave, and her method was … seduction."

The Hokage's mouth fell open slightly. "_Seduction_?"

"That's right. That woman said things to him, personal things, and also … touched him. Apparently she thought kissing him would be a good distraction."

Two smudges of color had appeared on Tsunade's cheeks, and the corners of her mouth were twitching in a movement that looked suspiciously like laughter. She cleared her throat and said, "And Shikamaru could tell by the way the clone kissed that it wasn't you?"

The implication was too much – an angry shout had worked its way halfway up Temari's throat before she remembered who she was talking to and choked it back. Diplomacy, she reminded herself, diplomacy was required here. One did not browbeat the leader of an allied nation, even when that leader was laughing at you. "N-no," she replied in a calm if somewhat strangled voice, "of course not. Shikamaru knew that I would _never_ act that way. He worked through all the details and confronted her the next morning."

"And the mystery was solved. So what's the problem?"

"The _problem_, Madam Hokage, is that Shikamaru ran away without telling us any of this. We only discovered the details by interrogating the imposter" – and _that_ had been a hellish experience, with Kankuro's shouts of laughter echoing around the tiny prison cell – "after he left. He didn't even have the courage to tell me about it himself, and he left me to be humiliated in front of my comrades. It's _unforgivable_." Temari's hands were balled into fists; speaking Shikamaru's crimes aloud made her want to kill something.

The Hokage had stopped laughing, though a faint ghost of a smile still hovered around her lips. "So if I'm hearing you correctly, ambassador, you deceived my men and infiltrated my village to pursue a purely personal agenda?"

It sounded bad, when put like that. Temari knew a moment's shame. It was short-lived, though. "All I want," she said, "is permission to speak to Shikamaru."

"To what end? Revenge? He _did_ save your life."

"I know that. But he also insulted me and I can't let it pass. I want to hear the story from him, and to know why he took the coward's way out. I want him to feel as uncomfortable as I did. Maybe it's not the shinobi way, but every woman has her pride."

Tsunade suddenly looked wistful. "I know something about that myself. I injured some men for pride's sake, in my time. But Shikamaru is valuable to me. Do you intend to harm him?"

"Physically?" Temari considered. "Not much. Mentally – well, that's another issue. But I swear he'll come out of it a better ninja."

"Hmm." The Hokage was silent a moment. "If Shikamaru's got one failing, it's that he thinks too much. He's excellent when he has time to plan ahead, but he lacks the ability to lose himself in battle, to simply _react_. He'll never become a _jounin_ without that killer reflex."

"Does he even care about something like that?"

She shrugged. "Probably not, but _I_ care. I want him as the Leaf's next _jounin_ captain, if he can learn to rely on his gut as much as his head. And you may just be the push he needs." She grinned wickedly. "I'll grant you permission to stay here and seek out Shikamaru, and I'll record your visit as a training exercise, provided you promise to keep him as off-balance and out of his element as possible."

"That," said Temari grimly, "is my intention. I expect Taro can help me as well."

A look of understanding passed between them, colored by amusement on one side and determination on the other. If Shikamaru could have seen it, it would have confirmed his worst fears.

"It's decided then," said Tsunade. "I'll give the order to let you move through the village unobstructed. But you're going to have to wait a few days before making contact with Shikamaru, so if you want to surprise him you may want to lay low at first."

"Wait a few days? Why?"

"He's scheduled to take a few Academy students out on a survival exercise tomorrow. It's nothing major, just a short trip into the forest, but he'll be away for several days."

Waiting was not optimal – Shikamaru was very perceptive, and there was a good chance he'd pick up some sign of her presence in the village. But getting him alone in the woods, with no home to flee to and no comrades to hide behind, could be very advantageous. "Send me along," said Temari eagerly. "It'll be good for Taro, and that way there's no chance Shikamaru will find out I'm here before I confront him."

Tsunade shook her head. "He's already been assigned a partner for this mission, and too many escorts is counter-productive to the goals of the exercise. The whole point is for the students to do certain things without help."

"I know a thing or two about survival, Hokage-sama. I'm from the desert, after all. Why not let me replace Shikamaru's partner?"

"I don't think the person I assigned would appreciate that."

"Suppose this person agreed to let me take his place? I can be very persuasive." Indeed she could, given a certain lack of interference and enough room to swing her giant fan. No one was going to get between her and her target.

"If you can convince Shikamaru's partner to step aside for you, I have no problem with it. But intimidation won't work, Temari. I suggest you take the same approach you did with me – the truth."

Temari frowned. Telling the humiliating story to a stranger was distinctly unappealing. She could probably trust the Hokage not to spread the tale around, but she couldn't be sure of anyone else. "Why would that get me anywhere?" she demanded. "I assume most Leaf-nin would be quicker to side with Shikamaru than me."

"In most cases, you'd be right," Tsunade agreed. "Shikamaru's quite popular. But this person is well-versed in the frustrations of working with him, and understands a woman's pride as much as I do. No, I think you have an excellent chance of winning the support of Ino Yamanaka."

* * *

Temari had some trouble finding the shop, despite the Hokage's detailed directions. She'd been to the Leaf many times before, of course, but always in the past she'd been escorted by Shikamaru, and content to follow his lead through the crowded streets. Now she was on her own with Taro in tow, and utterly paranoid that she'd bump into her quarry by happenstance. It was hard to navigate when you jumped at every man in a _chuunin _vest or ponytail.

Eventually they made it, though, to a cheerful two-story building whose lower floor bore a wooden sign painted with the Yamanaka name. The only thing visible through the open doorway was a riot of foliage. Temari stepped cautiously inside.

Within, the air was moist and fragrant, the light dim and green. Flowers were everywhere – rising from pots on the floor, hanging in planters from the ceiling, lining shelves on the wall. They came in every conceivable color and shape, from modest carnations to exotic orchids. It was overwhelming, after a lifetime spent in dry lands where the few native plants all had thick skins and sharp spines.

"Welcome!" called a feminine voice from across the room.

Moving quickly through the gloom, careful not to brush the delicate blooms as she passed, Temari made her way to the other end of the shop, where there was a short wooden counter. As soon as she saw the girl who stood behind it she knew she'd found Ino. She matched Tsunade's description in every particular, and moreover Temari recognized her from their few brief encounters. Now, as then, she was tall and beautiful, with sleek blond hair, pale blue eyes, and a complexion as white and clear as Gaara's. Here among the flowers she seemed totally at home.

Temari was suddenly aware of her rumpled clothing, and the fact that she hadn't yet stopped to wash off the sweat of her journey. Silently she cursed herself for her weakness – she was a soldier, not any kind of preening beauty queen, and she had nothing to be ashamed of. "You're Ino Yamanaka?" she asked in a voice that seemed too loud and rough for this setting.

"I am," the girl replied with a smile. In front of her, on a piece of lavender tissue paper, was a bunch of daffodils. Ino was methodically clipping their stems with a pair of sharp scissors. "And I know you – Temari of the Sand. Is Shikamaru with you?"

"Not this time. In fact, Shikamaru's what I came here to talk to you about."

Ino's eyebrows shot up and she laid the scissors aside. "Really?"

"I understand you're scheduled to go on a mission with him tomorrow?"

"That's right. It's survival training, and I'm an expert in medicinal plants."

"Well, I'd like your permission to take your place."

Ino rocked back on her heels with a peculiar glint in her eye. "You're that eager to spend time with Shikamaru? I can't say I'm surprised, but eating leaves and bugs isn't my idea of a romantic getaway. And there'll be students, you know."

Temari felt her face grow hot. It seemed _everyone_ in this village, from the Hokage on down, thought she was in some sort of relationship with Shikamaru. Perhaps she shouldn't have rescued him from Tayuya all those years ago. "Taro!" she barked over her shoulder.

Her student had been gawking at a display of tulips, which did not occur in Suna's desert. On hearing his teacher's voice he clapped his hands to his sides and turned in her direction.

"Go outside," Temari ordered. "I want you to guard the entrance. If anyone tries to come in, stop them. I'm counting on you."

"Yes sensei!" He snapped out a salute before moving quickly to the door.

"That's not exactly good for business," Ino observed without rancor. If anything she appeared intrigued.

"It won't be for long. I just don't want him to hear this. It's embarrassing, but Lady Tsunade told me I should be honest with you."

Ino's eyes were shining. "Oh, please do."

"I'm not here for some kind of romantic encounter. I'm here for vengeance."

Then she told Ino Yamanaka her tale, and by the end of it Ino's nostrils were flaring and her clear complexion had darkened with outrage.

"He did _what_?" she demanded. "Oh, that's _exactly_ like him, the coward. Unforgivable! To run off after all that, without saying a word to you, when you obviously like him –" At a loss for words, Ino took up her scissors and resumed cutting the daffodil stems, this time rather violently.

"I'm glad you sympathize," said Temari quickly, "but don't misunderstand. When it comes to Shikamaru, I don't—"

"Of course he was scared," Ino cut in, seeming not to hear her, "since he hasn't got a lot of that kind of experience with women. But he's taken on the Akatsuki, and he can't handle a simple conversation? Oh no, he just decided it was too _troublesome_ to bother with." Ino's scissors made a regular _snick-snick_ noise, a harsh metallic counterpoint to her words. "I hate it when he says that word, 'troublesome.' I once threatened to cut out his tongue if I ever heard it again." _Snick-snick._ "I should have done it, too. He wouldn't be kissing any clones then, would he?" _Snick-snick_.

"I guess not," said Temari. "But I really don't—"

"If there's one thing I can't stand" –_snick-snick_—"it's a man who's got no respect for a woman's feelings. So you need my help, right? To get close to Shikamaru?" _Snick-snick_. "Consider it done. You can take my place on the mission."

"Thanks," said Temari with relief. The Hokage had been right – Ino's sympathies were entirely in her favor here. But the other kunoichi seemed to be laboring under a misapprehension, a mistaken assumption that needed to be cleared up _now._ "But I definitely don't—"

"Just promise me one thing," said Ino. She held up her scissors and a daffodil whose petals were somewhat misshapen.

"What's that?"

"That you'll show that lazy coward what 'troublesome' really means." The scissors flashed and said _snick-snick_ once more, and the head of the deformed daffodil fell to the ground at Temari's feet.


	2. Cornered and Forewarned

"_The application should follow from a firm grounding in theory."_ –Shikamaru Nara, on teaching

"_Throwing a _kunai_ at someone is the only way to see if they can dodge."_ –Temari of the Sand, on teaching

Shikamaru rather liked teaching. He complained whenever they asked him to do it, of course, but that was mostly for show. After all he had a reputation to maintain, and showing enthusiasm for one assignment might very well lead to others. Thus when the Hokage ordered him to instruct a group of Academy students in basic survival he made it a point to mutter audibly about "troublesome little brats," even as he began writing lesson plans in the back of his mind.

As a teacher he could indulge his love of theory and display his deep understanding of the shinobi world. He was good at breaking hypothetical situations down into small, digestible pieces, and presenting them in such a way that the correct solution became obvious. In front of a classroom there was no fighting, no listening to enemy taunts or watching treasured comrades die. Battle was an ugly messy pain, and if he did this job right future generations might see less of it than he had.

It was Asuma's death that forced Shikamaru to grow up and accept responsibility; through his efforts he hoped to give these kids a gentler transition.

At the moment the students had no particular interest in Shikamaru's hopes, however. It was the end of the day and they sat in stepped rows behind long tables, fidgeting, whispering, and staring longingly out the window. Shikamaru was disappointed to note that not a single one of them seemed to be sleeping; apparently he had no kindred spirits among this particular cohort.

"Remember," he said loudly, trying to attract at least a few listeners, "plants with leaves of _this _shape" – he pointed to a crude chalk drawing on the board behind him—"contain a poison that's lethal if ingested. But leaves that look like _this_" – he pointed to another drawing –"can be chewed on to dull pain and fight infection. You'd better learn the difference, or you could end up getting killed in an embarrassingly stupid way. Nothing's more of a drag than dying like an idiot."

They were still ignoring him, other than a couple of girls in the front row who were studiously taking notes. They reminded him of Sakura Haruno at that age. He suppressed a shudder. If he didn't do something drastic this lesson was going to be a complete waste. He wasn't sure what to try, though, since it was usually his goal to _avoid_ attention.

Just then something happened.

There were two doors leading into the Academy classroom, one near Shikamaru and one at the other end of the room. The far door banged open like a peal of thunder and Temari of the Sand stepped through.

"Excuse me," she said with a sardonic smile. "I didn't mean to interrupt."

Shikamaru's heart stopped. He'd been in the middle of saying something, something about where to look for edible fungi, but at the sight of her his mouth fell open and his words dribbled off into an inconclusive nothing.

"I'd like to stay and observe, if you don't mind," Temari continued, and there was no mistaking the malicious glint in her eye.

He wanted to run. His mind, normally capable of plotting multiple strategies at once and dozens of moves in advance, was totally blank; he needed to retreat to consider his options. But that was impossible now – he was supposed to be teaching and couldn't just leave. He was trapped and at her mercy. Sometimes he forgot just how clever and deadly Temari was.

As mistakes went, that was a lot stupider than eating a poisonous plant.

Finally he closed his mouth and drew in a sharp breath. "Ambassador," he said formally, "your arrival is unexpected" – horrifying was more like it –"but of course you're welcome to stay." Surely she wouldn't attack him in front of a room full of children. It would cause a diplomatic incident.

"Thanks." She reached behind her and grasped her iron fan, and in spite of himself Shikamaru flinched. But she merely leaned the fan up against the wall and settled herself in an empty seat. She crossed her legs and folded her hands in front of her.

Temari's arrival had accomplished what Shikamaru's lecture had not; every eye in the room was now focused squarely on her. This group of students were all around ten years old, a couple of years shy of graduation, and had likely never seen a foreign ninja up close before. They stared at her Suna forehead-protector, her fan, her breastplate and elegantly tied red belt, with equal parts fascination and intimidation. She didn't even glance at them. She had eyes only for Shikamaru.

"Well," he said, barely managing to keep his voice steady, "uh, right, like I was saying, the best place to look for mushrooms is near the roots of certain trees …"

He resumed his lesson, now speaking into a room so thick with tension it seemed hard to breathe. The students could feel it too, and kept darting looks between him and Temari. Her green eyes bored into the back of his skull like _kunai_, and her expression was positively feral. Under her scrutiny he felt himself falter, losing the thread of his thoughts and making elementary mistakes. The note-happy girls in the front row helpfully corrected him.

_Great_, he thought. _I finally get their attention, and she makes me look like a fool. Typical._ Clearly he was destined never to be at his best around her.

With ten minutes to go he still hadn't come up with any brilliant strategy for handling this situation, and then Temari sat back and politely raised her hand. The class collectively held its breath.

Having no other choice, Shikamaru turned and met her eyes. "Yes, Ambassador?"

"I have a question, sensei, that relates to survival. In the desert near Suna there's a plant so deadly that even touching one of its spines is lethal. All Sand-nin are taught to recognize it on sight, and I was wondering if it also grows in this area." Temari parted her lips slightly, baring her teeth. "It's called 'The Kiss of Death.'"

Some of the girls in class began giggling and nudging each other at the plant's name, while Shikamaru paled and swallowed audibly. So she knew everything.

"Nnngh," he said indistinctly. "N-no, I haven't heard of anything like that. It probably doesn't grow in these woods."

Temari's eyes narrowed. "Oh, I don't know. I'll bet it's here, even closer than you think."

The unquestionable fact that he was in serious trouble hit him hard, knocked him into a state of queasy resignation. There was only one way to handle this, which was to get through it as fast as possible. He dropped his chalk onto the floor and said, "Yeah, that's all. Class dismissed." There was a beat while his students processed his words, and then with a cheer they rose and headed for the door. They flowed past him like water down a drain while he stayed rooted in place, pinned there by Temari's stare.

Slowly she got up and took hold of her fan. Ominously, she didn't tuck it into her belt but instead chose to carry it, allowing for a quicker draw. With a heavy tread she made her way down to the front of the classroom.

_Clang!_ About a meter away she halted and slammed her fan down. She eyed him appraisingly. "You should have killed that imposter when you had the chance," she said at last. "Then I'd have never learned the truth."

"That's not really my style. Anyway I sort of hoped she'd keep her mouth shut."

"Stupid."

"Maybe." This exchange, fraught with tension and the expectation of pain, was agonizing. He wished she'd just scream or club him over the head or whatever she had in mind. The uncertainty was the worst part.

She gestured at the door. "Let's take a walk."

Her hand was on the doorknob before she realized he wasn't moving. She looked back and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not doing this," he said firmly. "I can tell you're angry and I guess you've got a right to be. But all this waiting is a huge pain, so you should just say whatever it is you came to say or do what you came to do."

She didn't like that at all. Her brows knit and when she spoke her voice had a brittle quality. "For now," she replied, "_I'm_ not the one who's going to do anything." In one swift motion she pushed the door open, and over her shoulder Shikamaru could see Gaara, the Fifth Kazekage, standing just outside in the hall.

"Shikamaru Nara," he intoned. "We have a lot to talk about."

Shikamaru gasped and stumbled backward. He vividly remembered Gaara's words to him, back in Suna: _When this is all over you are going to explain to me how it is that this imposter felt the words 'I need you' belonged in a conversation between you and my sister. _They'd never had that conversation; avoiding it was one of the reasons he'd fled. But now there was nowhere to run.

"K-kazekage-sama! I swear I never meant any disrespect! It was that imposter, she—"

He was cut off as other doors along the corridor flew open to expel hordes of rowdy students; apparently the other classes had also ended for the day. It was just as well he couldn't finish his thought—Gaara's cold blue eyes appeared unmoved, and anyway the hastily-concocted story he'd been trying to tell, that kissing the clone had been something that happened entirely against his will, was a lie.

The corridor filled with ninja-in-training, most of whom gave Gaara a wide berth. Even an inexperienced child could sense his dark aura of menace, so that a clear bubble of space formed around him in the midst of the crowd. But in every class there were a few Narutos, a few kids denser than their peers, and one of those came hurtling straight toward the Kazekage to collide with his gourd.

"Watch where you're standing!" the boy called behind him as he raced toward the exit. Gaara glared and recovered his footing; he'd stumbled a bit and the gourd had shifted on his back.

"Shikamaru Nara," he began again, raising his voice to be heard above the hubbub, "if you think—"

"Skip it." Shikamaru strode forward to the doorway, reached outside, and yanked Gaara roughly toward him by the strap of his gourd. "You're not Gaara. You're one of those mimics I defeated in the Sand. Show yourself!" He shook the imposter roughly, making his head jerk back and forth.

"Stop that!" said Temari. She grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand away with surprising strength. Meanwhile 'Gaara' was struggling to regain his composure, as his face seemed to be in the process of melting.

"You might as well give it up, Taro," said Temari. "He knows."

"Right," gasped the mimic, this time in the voice of an adolescent boy. His face solidified again, until he looked like what he was – a member of the family of bandits who had lately invaded Suna. "I'm sorry, Temari-sensei."

" '_Sensei_?'" Shikamaru echoed. "This boy and his family attack the Sand, and you take him on as a student?"

"That's right. You have to admit, his mimicry abilities would be valuable in a ninja, and unlike most of his clan he has some natural ability. What tipped you off – was it the fact that he didn't use his sand to stop that boy from bumping into him?"

"Yeah, partly. It was also the way the gourd shifted after it was hit – the kid who ran into it was tiny, and if it was really filled with sand he should have just bounced off. But the gourd moved instead, which it would only do if it was mostly empty. And now that I think about it, it doesn't make any sense for the Kazekage to be here, unannounced, with just one bodyguard."

Temari gave a half-shrug. "Tch. Don't feel too bad, Taro. As you can see, he can occasionally be perceptive, so our ruse was never going to last long anyway. But we accomplished what we wanted – for a few minutes, he thought he was going to die." She smirked unpleasantly. "Didn't you, Nara?"

His fear had been very real, but there was no way he was going to admit it. Instead he looked straight at her and said, "You know, you can let go of me now."

She still had a hold of his wrist – his skin, under her fingers, was tingling slightly. She flushed and released him.

For a charged instant they just stared at each other.

"You made up the plant, didn't you?" asked Shikamaru.

"Of course."

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry about what happened with the clone."

"It's not worth anything. You can't get out of this with a simple apology."

"Then what do you want from me?"

She paused to consider her words, her gaze flickering over to the chalkboard and then back again. "You want me to tell you that so you can just give it to me and go on with your life, right? You think this is troublesome and you want it over with."

She understood him pretty well. Then again, unlike her, he wasn't especially complicated. "Yeah, that's about right," he admitted.

She scowled. "Well it doesn't work like that, Nara. You're not in control here. That's what all that 'just do what you came to do' stuff was about – you trying to take charge. But that's not going to happen."

"So you're not going to tell me what you're after? Guess I'll just have to suffer, then." At least until he left for his mission tomorrow. It was the first time he'd ever been grateful for an assignment – he needed some time to get away from her and think.

His rather flippant response should have enraged her, but she just grinned. "I know exactly what you're thinking, you know. It's not hard to guess what's in the head of someone so dumb. You're thinking that you'll be able to escape from me tomorrow when you go on your mission. Well think again, because I'm going with you."

For the third time that day he reeled with shock. He was a strategist, a careful _shogi_ player, and his constitution couldn't take so many surprises. "That's … impossible," he said feebly. "Ino—"

"Was only too happy to yield her place to me, and Lady Tsunade gave the whole thing her blessing. Apparently they both think you could do with a little suffering."

All the troublesome women in his life were conspiring against him. It made sense in a nightmarish sort of way.

"We'll meet at the village gates at dawn," said Temari, radiating satisfaction at his discomfort. "You bring your students, and I'll bring mine. A joint operation between the Sand and the Leaf – I'm sure we'll all find it extremely _educational_." Then she turned, snapped her fingers at Taro, and swept out of the room.

Temari always did have a flair for the dramatic.

* * *

Shikamaru did not go home immediately after his confrontation with Temari. He needed to be someplace quiet, and that definitely did not apply to anywhere his mother might be. So he found his way to a secluded rooftop that afforded a good view of the sky and lay back to bask in the sunlight. It was probably going to be his last moment of peace for a while.

It took some time for the cloud-watching to soothe him, which was a mark of Temari's remarkable ability to affect his state of mind. Shikamaru _never_ got agitated, except in the presence of the Kazekage's sister. And since his mission to Suna he understood the significance of that, understood what his own treacherous mind had been telling him for years.

He _liked_ Temari. He was deeply _attracted_ to her.

And yet he wasn't at all happy to see her here, or to be going on a mission with her tomorrow. Not only was she clearly angry and out for revenge, but Shikamaru just plain wasn't ready. He'd meant to go slowly, solicit advice from his father and even Kurenai, and put together the perfect strategy to win her over. It had been his intention to start this relationship the right way, on _his_ terms.

Now that was impossible. Temari was in control, and if he wasn't careful he'd push her away forever or worse, end up like his father. He wasn't even sure how Temari felt about him, which was a piece of information he'd definitely planned on extracting before making any sort of confession. In the days to come he'd be playing by ear, to a tune that was utterly foreign and devilishly hard.

"What a pain," he muttered to himself.

"I'll give you pain!" cried a voice, and then Shikamaru sat up to see a long thin body launching itself toward him from across the roof. He rolled quickly to one side and came up in a crouch with his hands clenched together; his shadow twitched under the afternoon sun and extended to meet the shadow cast by his attacker.

His attacker froze in place, immobilized. It was Taro.

"Yet another surprise," said Shikamaru with a sigh. "This is too much for one day. Did she send you here?"

With effort Taro raised his head to meet Shikamaru's eyes; Shikamaru was allowing him just enough mobility to move slowly and to speak.

"No," said the boy through clenched teeth. He really did look very much like the other members of his clan, whose faces were etched firmly into Shikamaru's memory. "I came on my own."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Let me guess: You want revenge."

"That's right!"

"Pretty cliché, you know. I've heard that one about a thousand times. It gets old."

To Taro, an adolescent, everything was new and no one before him had ever felt the way he felt now. Hearing his motives compared to others' filled him with rage. He let out an inchoate roar and strained forward against the shadows binding him.

"Careful," said Shikamaru. "You'll hurt yourself and then Temari'll have another reason to be mad at me. You can't break this jutsu with muscle power." Veins were standing out in Taro's face and neck, and his swarthy skin had darkened by several shades.

"Look," Shikamaru continued, knowing as he spoke the futility of reasoning with a self-appointed avenger, "I didn't actually kill any member of your family. I only stopped them from murdering my allies, and turned them over to the authorities. Whatever happened to them next is ultimately their fault. No one forced them to attack Suna."

Taro abruptly stopped struggling. His brows contracted and he laboriously shook his head. "No," he said tightly. "This has nothing to do with my family. They were a bunch of criminals and they got what they deserved."

"Then what possible grudge have you got against me? I've never even seen you before today."

"I'm taking revenge for Temari-sensei! She's been trying to hide it from me but I know all about it. You … _defiled_ her, and now you have to pay!"

Shikamaru broke into laughter and used his shadow to make Taro sit down. "So that's it! You're here to avenge your teacher! Were you planning on killing me?"

Mutely, glaring with rage, Taro nodded.

"I'd guess you have a pretty low opinion of my skills from listening to her, but attacking any ninja is risky for a person with no combat experience. And if you're planning to work with Temari you'd better forget that chivalry stuff right now, because she won't have any patience with it. She's not the kind of woman who needs protecting."

Taro still didn't speak, but it was obvious he did not agree.

"You know, even if you managed to hurt me Temari wouldn't be happy with you. She wants to get me herself, and I can promise you that whatever it is she's got in mind, it's worse than death."

At this the boy relaxed a bit, and Shikamaru cautiously loosened his hold on him. When Taro showed no inclination to lunge at him again he withdrew his shadow altogether.

Taro sat panting, drawing in the kind of huge breaths he'd been incapable of in Shikamaru's grip. "You really think that's true?" he asked eventually.

"Oh yeah. Temari's out for her own revenge, and she's a lot more capable than you. If you want to see me get what I've got coming, just watch."

"You seem pretty calm about it."

"I can't avoid it, can I? Worrying is more trouble than it's worth." Of course Shikamaru wasn't nearly as composed as Taro thought, but he was gratified to hear that he _seemed_ calm.

Taro crossed his arms and shot him a venomous look. "I'm going to help her. You'll have _two _enemies to watch out for, not just one, and you'd better not underestimate me!"

"Wouldn't think of it. Underestimating opponents is an elementary mistake. But I don't get it – you've only known Temari a few weeks, so why do you care so much? She's just your teacher, and from what I've seen she's pretty nasty to subordinates." He recalled how everyone in Suna seemed to regard her with a mixture of awe and fear.

In the next instant Shikamaru had to engage his jutsu again to stop Taro from reaching into his _shuriken_ holster. "You're wrong!" the boy shouted. "Take that back!"

Shikamaru was astounded – Taro was angrier now than a moment ago, but nothing he'd said should inspire that kind of feeling. "Take _what_ back? Why are you so worked up?"

"Temari-sensei is _not_ nasty! She's incredible! She's strong and beautiful and –" Suddenly Taro fell silent and colored even more.

Shikamaru had to suppress an urge to laugh again. Doing so would only provoke the kid into becoming more of a nuisance, and he could feel his chakra draining by the second. "I get it," he said carefully. "You've got a crush on Temari."

"It's not a crush! I _love _her!"

This time he couldn't help smiling. "Has it occurred to you she's a bit too old for you?"

"That doesn't matter!"

"Sure, whatever. But you've got to admit she's scary. You should try to find someone less troublesome."

"There's _no one_ like her!"

"On that, we can agree." The boy's eyes widened. "If I let you go, will you promise not to attack me again? I could knock you out, but that would take a lot of effort."

Taro thought it over, realized he had no good alternative. "Okay."

Shikamaru released the jutsu and plopped down tiredly into a seated position. With the back of his hand he wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead.

Taro snorted. "Temari-sensei was right. You really _are_ lazy."

Shikamaru stopped mid-wipe as something occurred to him – this boy might be the solution to one of his problems. He was sorely lacking in information, and Taro had been in close proximity to Temari for weeks, probably watching her avidly all that time.

"I've heard that before," he said in what he hoped was a casual tone. "But I'm sure Temari's said all kinds of horrible things about me."

"Almost every day," Taro agreed, standing up and dusting himself off. "She mentions you all the time, while we're training together and when she's talking to Kazekage-sama and Kankuro-dono."

A warm feeling grew in the pit of Shikamaru's stomach. "That's not surprising. What kind of things does she say?"

Taro halted near the top of a ladder running down the side of the building and frowned slightly, remembering. "She calls you a lazy, cowardly crybaby."

The warmth expanded to fill his whole chest. He smiled wryly. "You know, that's a lot better than I expected."


	3. Bridges

_"Mercy is frequently sound strategy. An enemy spared can become an ally gained." _ -- Shikamaru Nara, on mercy

_"Mercy's a luxury, and you won't find many of those in the desert."_ -- Temari of the Sand, on mercy

Shikamaru's pain started early. When he awoke it was still dark outside, and the sound of his mother's strident voice was issuing from his doorway.

"Wake _up_, you bum!" Yoshino was silhouetted in the light shining from the hall, and through bleary eyes Shikamaru could see that her arms were crossed and her face wore its customary scowl.

"Mmmph," he said groggily, and rolled over.

"Oh no you don't!" Footsteps stamped across the floor – not for Yoshino the demure tread of the traditional housewife – and the next thing Shikamaru knew the whole world was shaking under the impetus of his mother's hand. "Get up now or you're going to be late and shame us all!"

"Nnngh." With a groan Shikamaru sat up. Abruptly the shaking stopped. "I'm up, I'm up."

"It's about time! The sun will be up in half an hour! I've laid your clothes out – you get dressed and be in the kitchen in _five minutes_, understand?"

"Yeah." She left and he hurried to do as instructed, knowing from experience that the only thing more troublesome than obeying his mother was disobeying her. Five minutes later he slouched into the kitchen to find his father already seated at the table with a steaming cup of tea in front of him.

"She woke you up too, huh?"

Shikaku Nara, _jounin_ captain of Konoha, shrugged and took a sip of his tea. "Guess she figured I had no business sleeping later than everyone else in the house." He said this without rancor, having long since surrendered to his wife's iron will. "You've got a mission, right? Survival training with Ino?"

"It's a survival exercise. I'll be gone a few days."

Shikaku's dark eyes met his son's, and Shikamaru knew his omission had not gone unnoticed. His father's face was an older, more scarred version of his own, and their minds were similarly alike. "Ino's not going with you, then," Shikaku surmised. "What happened? I thought that was the plan."

Shikamaru tried to keep his voice casual. "She got replaced by someone else."

"Who?"

There was probably no point in keeping it secret – his father was sure to find out anyway. "A representative from Suna. It got turned into a joint mission."

"This representative wouldn't happen to be the Kazekage's sister, would it?"

Shikaku's deductive skills where quite as sharp as his son's, though in this case they probably hadn't been necessary. Shikamaru had a feeling the truth was written all over his face. "Yeah," he admitted, "as a matter of fact it would."

Shikaku had the good grace not to snicker, though the corner of his mouth twitched briefly. He covered by taking another sip of tea. "The thing about a woman like that," he began after lowering his cup, "is that –"

"Don't even think of sitting down!" snapped Yoshino, bustling into the room and cutting her husband off. "You laid in bed so long there's no time for a real breakfast. I made something for you to take with you." She thrust a cloth-wrapped package into Shikamaru's hands and started pushing him out of the room in the direction of the front door. "You'd better sprint all the way to the gates if you want to be on time! It'll be good training for you – I _know_ you don't do much physical conditioning."

They were at the front door now, which Yoshino threw open as Shikamaru bent to put on his shoes. Outside the eastern sky was distinctly lighter.

Shikamaru straightened up to see his father looming in the entryway behind his mother, eying him shrewdly.

"Eventually you've got to stop running," said Shikaku, right before Yoshino shoved Shikamaru out into the street and slammed the door in his face.

* * *

She walked not beside him, but behind and slightly to the left. It was a calculated move designed to discomfit him and it was working perfectly. Shikamaru could just barely see her out of the corner of his eye; he flinched every time she moved her arms. He'd developed a headache from straining at the limits of his peripheral vision and back spasms from repeatedly bracing for an attack. They'd only been walking an hour.

Spring had just begun, and at this early hour it was still cold enough to see your breath. There was no snow and little foliage; the dawn sunlight filtered down through mostly naked branches studded by pale green buds. Underfoot was a mulch of rotting brown leaves that had lain chilled and undisturbed for months. Temari had already expressed her opinion on the ugliness of the forest in this season and its inferiority to the desert in that respect, and at the moment Shikamaru couldn't really disagree with her. A survival exercise at this time, with everything either dead or not yet born, was going to be a pain.

Up ahead Taro and Shikamaru's students were pushing their way through the underbrush. Taro was taking the lead, trying to impress his teacher, and the younger Leaf-nin seemed happy to follow him. There were three of them, two boys and a girl. Chinatsu Yoshida had blue eyes and black hair and had been one of the front-row note-takers from yesterday; her studiousness made Shikamaru cringe. Ishi was brown-haired, pudgy, and pushy, while the undersized Aki didn't speak much but seemed to snicker a lot. Looking at them made Shikamaru feel old.

For the moment they seemed to be managing fine, which made Temari his most immediate concern. At this rate she'd wear him down simply by making him worry himself into insanity. It was time for a countermove.

Shikamaru glanced over his shoulder, briefly caught sight of her glittering green eyes, and said, "It doesn't really seem like you, you know."

Before turning around again he was pleased to see a look of puzzlement cross her face. At least she wasn't pondering revenge strategies anymore. "_What_ doesn't seem like me?"

"Taking Taro in. His clan tried to kill you and your brothers. I'd think you'd want to punish him."

"That's got nothing to do with him. He's just a kid, and a bad family can happen to anyone."

Well, _that_ was an interesting insight. Of course Temari was the daughter of the Fourth Kazekage, a man ruthless enough to implant a bloodthirsty demon into his own unborn son, but he couldn't remember her ever making reference to that fact before. It was deeply personal territory, and her willingness to discuss it now might indicate a growing closeness and comfort between them. Or so he hoped.

For the moment he decided to let it be; it was a fraught subject and he was genuinely curious about Taro. "Yeah, that's true," he agreed blandly. "So Gaara decided to spare him? What about the rest of his clan? How many were executed?"

There was a pause during which he could hear the faint voices of the students drifting back through the chilly air. "No one was executed," said Temari at last. "Of course a lot of people were in favor of it, especially because the infiltrators had learned too much to ever be allowed to leave Suna, but Gaara decided to imprison them on a plot at the edge of the village. A sealing jutsu and a few guards prevent them from leaving their area, but within its boundaries they can move freely. We gave them the means to start a farm."

For the hard-edged sand siblings, for the Kage of a hidden village, it was astounding leniency. Certain people would consider Gaara weak for this decision, but Shikamaru wasn't one of them. He knew revenge only fed on itself and created more of the same. "Makes sense to me," he replied, and looked back to find her watching him closely. She covered quickly with a scowl, but too late to hide the truth – she cared about his opinion. Shikamaru grinned and added, "But that still doesn't explain Taro."

She seemed even more reluctant to answer than before. Her scowl deepened and she said, "I asked for him. We had the whole family in a line, waiting to be marked with a seal that would bind them to their land. I was standing with Kankuro and Gaara, supervising, and then Taro slugged one of the guards and came at us. We thought he was attacking, but at the last second he dropped to the ground and begged our forgiveness."

"So you let him off just because he asked you to? Did you start to feel sorry for him?"

Shikamaru hadn't meant it as an insult, but she took it that way. "Of course not! I've got no time for sentimental nonsense like that – unlike you _I _don't stand around worrying about my feelings. But Taro landed a blow on a much older _chuunin_ and charged at us with absolutely no fear. And for your information he never asked to be let off, only that we not think badly of him for the actions of his family. He said he knew they all deserved to die and thanked us for their lives. I could see he had courage and talent, so I asked for him on the spot and Gaara agreed. It was a practical decision."

She was so insistent it just had to be a lie, and it was good to have her on the defensive like this. A half-formed idea crept into his mind and he uncharacteristically voiced it without pausing to consider it fully: "After that display, Taro couldn't go back to his family, could he? They'd have disowned him for betraying them."

Temari flushed and he knew he'd struck gold. "I suppose that's true. He hasn't seen his parents since that day. But I wasn't thinking about that when I asked for him."

He faced forward again and let doubt and amusement color his voice. "Sure, if that's what you need to tell yourself. I'll believe you." Shikamaru was now absolutely certain she'd been moved by compassion, though of course she'd never admit it.

"I suppose that you agree with Kankuro that what I've done is crazy."

"No. It's just unorthodox. But he's already at the age when most _genin_ start going on missions. Do you really think he'll be able to catch up?"

This was a subtler question than it seemed, since Taro's disadvantage was far more than a matter of time. Residents of hidden villages came from stock that had been producing ninja for generations, from a genetic pool rich in the ability to manipulate chakra and an environment rife with opportunities to practice that skill. The civilian population often couldn't compete.

Temari didn't answer for several moments, and when she did something in her tone made Shikamaru stop in his tracks and turn around. "I don't know. He's got some talent, like I said, and he's determined. Maybe it'll be enough." She stopped too, and looked off into the distance where her student's light clothing could be seen through the brown trees. "If I have anything to do with it, it'll be enough."

All the combativeness was gone, and on her face Shikamaru could see the same dangerous quality he'd just heard in her voice. She looked soft and feminine, like she did when worrying about her brothers. She clearly cared for the boy. In following his instincts to expose her weakness Shikamaru had inadvertently run headlong into his own.

Because it was when she was like this that he found her most beautiful.

Her gaze shifted to his, and for one exhilarating moment it seemed she had turned her tenderness on him. He felt the blood rushing to his face and his breath catching in his throat. Then abruptly she seemed to come to herself, and a far more familiar expression settled on her face: mockery.

"If Taro's going to become a ninja, we're going to have to talk about your idiotic idea of a survival exercise."

Apparently a roller coaster of emotions was part of his punishment. As torture it would make Ibiki jealous. Shikamaru's breathing resumed, though he was almost certainly still red in the face. "What's your problem with the exercise?" he asked, turning on his heel to resume their journey. "You didn't have any problem with it when I explained it before."

She fell into step right behind him and slightly to the left. "I had a streak of generosity," she replied, "and didn't want to make you look stupid in front of your students. You do enough of that all by yourself. But the exercise is too easy. Maybe it's all right for soft Leaf-nin, but I expect more from my students."

Just what 'more' a person could demand from ten-year-olds, Shikamaru had no idea. Already they were being asked to spend four days and three nights in the cold forest, to retrieve a marker fifteen kilometers north of the village and return home with it. They'd have to feed, shelter, and warm themselves using only their wits, ninja tools, and survival techniques. They had not been issued any field rations and Shikamaru was only supposed to intervene if there was a chance someone might die. For kids who'd never been out of Konoha before, it was a pretty tall order.

"What is it you have in mind?" he asked, dreading the answer.

"How many ninja missions require survival skills alone? Almost none. There's always something, some kind of espionage or negotiation or battle, that you have to think about too. So I want to add a little more realism to this scenario."

He didn't even have to turn around to know she was wearing that scary smile of hers. "Temari, they're just kids. I'm not about to let you attack them."

"Tch. A few bruises might toughen them up, you know. But I didn't mean that I want to fight them. I've brought along a few traps ninja often encounter in the woods – trip wires, exploding tags, nets, that kind of thing. I want to run ahead and plant these in our path."

"That's _insane_. They barely know how to make a fire, and you want to pit them against lethal traps?"

"Not lethal. I won't use anything that might kill them."

"_Exploding tags._"

"The charge is small. You could detonate one in your hand and keep most of your fingers. And I'll be careful how I plant them. Anything too serious, you'll be able to spot and defuse for them. It'll be a teachable moment."

"No."

"Nara, this is supposed to be a joint exercise. I've followed your lead until now, but Suna has its own ideas about how to train future ninja. Can you honestly say your students wouldn't gain anything from my approach? Like a more realistic picture of shinobi life?"

Inwardly, Shikamaru groaned. She had a point and she knew it; the kids he'd been assigned were hopelessly green. Partly that was because of their age, but Aki and Ishi seemed to regard this whole thing as a joke, and Chinatsu was laboring under the delusion that it was some kind of homework assignment. Not one of them had any idea what it actually meant to be a ninja. Shikamaru's exposure to such things had come unexpectedly during his first _chuunin_ exam and had nearly killed him. A learning curve that started sooner could be less steep.

He couldn't help but feel, though, that her intent was actually to push _him_, not the students. Traps would force him into a state of constant vigilance, ruining his plans for a leisurely stroll through the woods punctuated by the occasional helpful suggestion. Temari was trying to make him run a gauntlet of her design. And he was going to let her, for the sake of education.

"All right," he said heavily. "I'll let you lay some traps, _after_ lunch. Let them find their rhythm out here and get a meal before you start trying to blow them up."

"That's fine," she agreed readily, and by the warm satisfaction in her voice, Shikamaru knew he was playing right into her hand.

* * *

Lunch was a few hyacinth bulbs dug from the hardened ground, some buds plucked from a bush, and assorted seeds and nuts. They were all carrying water but would have to refill their canteens soon. Shikamaru meticulously examined everything his students gathered before allowing them to eat it, noting privately that all of it together wouldn't have kept him satisfied for an hour.

They huddled miserably against a gigantic oak, on damp ground they'd already scoured for acorns. Shikamaru and Temari crouched nearby. With the exception of a big black crow peering beadily down at them from the oak's upper branches, the six ninja seemed to be the only life in this forest.

"It's cold," said Ishi plaintively. "We should at least have a fire." When the others nodded in agreement he reached into his hip pouch to remove a flint.

Shikamaru extended a shadow across the ground to still the boy's hand. "You sure you want to do that?"

Ishi's brown eyes met his. "Yeah, I'm sure. It's cold."

"How long do you think it'll take to find enough wood? How long are you willing to delay after that to enjoy your fire? You've got to get to the marker with enough time to take it back to the village. And if you were in enemy territory, would you really want to attract attention with a flame and all that smoke?" Shikamaru released Ishi's hand, but the boy's scowl said he still wasn't convinced.

"I guess," said Chinatsu hesitantly, "that anything that might delay us too much isn't really a good idea, is it? If we'd wanted to build a fire for lunch, we should have planned ahead and gathered everything as we walked. Is that right, sensei?"

"Sounds good to me," said Shikamaru.

"Ishi," she said, "we don't really need a fire right now. It's not cold enough to hurt us, just make us uncomfortable. We can wait until this evening, when a fire _will_ be a necessity."

"I'd rather walk anyway," put in Aki, and at this Ishi sighed and returned the flint to his pocket.

Chinatsu was frowning slightly. "Sensei, you also said something about being in enemy territory. Does that mean we're supposed to assume we're being pursued? I thought this was only about survival."

She'd hit the nail right on the head, and Shikamaru shifted uncomfortably and glanced over at Temari. "It was," he replied, "until now. After some input from the Ambassador, I've decided to allow her to plant a few traps in the woods. Starting from the moment we depart from this spot, you'll have to be on the lookout for those."

That certainly got a reaction. Chinatsu's eyes widened, Aki and Ishi started shouting together, and Taro looked to his teacher for confirmation. She nodded at him.

"So wait," said Ishi, "we're supposed move through these woods fast enough to reach the marker tomorrow, while gathering food _and_ looking out for a bunch of traps? That's impossible!"

"Do Leaf-nin always give up so easily?" asked Temari coolly. "I thought Shikamaru here was the only one, but maybe it's a common trait."

Ishi's mouth fell open, and Aki said, "No one's given up yet! He just meant that this is way more than we expected to deal with."

Temari folded her arms. "It's a good approximation of what actual ninja missions are like. If you can't handle it, maybe you ought to rethink your career. Even the lowest _genin_ has to know how to spot a tripwire."

Aki shut up. Taro sprang to his feet and stood at attention. "I think it's an excellent idea! I'm ready, sensei, let's start now!"

Aki snickered and Ishi muttered something under his breath, but Taro was oblivious, staring eagerly at Temari. Shikamaru didn't think she knew about her student's feelings for her, but given this display he wondered how she'd missed it.

"I like your enthusiasm, Taro," she said. "And you're right, I'll go lay the traps now. It won't take long." She whirled and sprinted off into the underbrush, and very soon her crimson sash disappeared from view.

"Finish eating," said Shikamaru grimly. "You four are going to need all your strength to deal with what's ahead."

They obeyed him in tense silence, and at the end of their pitiful meal they stood and faced north. "Should we depart now, sensei, or wait for the Ambassador to return?" asked Chinatsu.

"Leave now. She'll catch up."

So they set off, Shikamaru sticking closer to the students this time. He was immediately on alert for traps, but of course they didn't find anything close to their lunch site. Just when the oak under which they'd eaten disappeared from view, he had a sudden sense of danger and turned to see Temari emerging from a thicket beside him, looking smug.

"Done already?"

"You bet. The first one's coming up soon."

"Huh." He scanned the area carefully, seeing nothing. "You find something to eat out there?" Neither of them had taken any of their charges' food, because they didn't need to and because there wasn't enough to go around.

She shook her head, shedding a few small sticks that had gotten caught in her hair. "No, I'll just kill the first thing I see. Like that, for instance." She pointed past him, to a nearby tree where a crow was perched. She reached back for her fan.

Shikamaru caught her wrist, stopping her. "That thing'll taste nasty. I have some food my mother gave me." He pulled out Yoshino's cloth-wrapped package, unknotted it, and held it out to her.

She considered briefly before taking one of the rice balls. "Your _mother_?" she echoed amusedly. "Does she sing you to sleep at night too?"

Ah. It had probably been a mistake to mention where he'd gotten the food. The students may have been forbidden from bringing rations along with them, but thankfully that didn't apply to the instructors, who were not the ones being trained. Still, it would have been cruel to eat in front of them.

Someone else would have thanked him, but Temari merely ate in silence for a while and then remarked, "We'd better get up there, to make sure they handle the first trap correctly."

Shikamaru swallowed his last mouthful and hastened to do as she suggested, and within a few paces he'd spotted the booby trap: a tripwire strung at ankle-height between two trees, glinting visibly in the noonday sun. Aki had also seen it and alerted the others.

"Should we go around it?" asked Chinatsu nervously. "It wouldn't be a very long detour."

"Are we supposed to do that every time we find one of these things?" demanded Ishi. "That could eat up a lot of time. We should just cut it." So saying, he took out a _kunai_ (it looked oversized in his small pudgy hand) and crouched down.

Shikamaru was about to say something, when Taro moved and kicked the _kunai_ out of Ishi's hand.

"What are you doing?" asked Ishi indignantly.

"Don't be stupid. If you just start cutting apart a trap without examining it first, you're likely to get blown up. Look over there." Taro pointed to where the wire was attached to the tree. Another wire, glinting like the first one, ran up vertically from that spot.

Ishi's eyes widened. "I didn't see that."

Chinatsu went to examine it. "I can't see what it's attached to," she told them, "but I'd guess that if the tension's released, it'll trigger something up in the branches."

"So we'd better not mess with _any_ of the wires," Aki concluded. "Can we just step over it?"

"I don't know," said Taro, "but there's a way to test. Stand back."

The Leaf-nin moved to stand about a meter behind Taro, while he took up a long branch and extended it over the horizontal wire. He waved it back and forth and tapped it on the ground, cautiously avoiding contact with the wire, and then retracted it and tossed it on the ground. "I think it's safe. As long as we don't touch it we should be okay."

"Then you go first," said Ishi. "If you make it, the rest of us will come after."

Taro looked back at Temari. She didn't speak, but folded her arms and raised an eyebrow in a way that clearly said _It's all up to you_. He faced forward again, squared his shoulders, and clenched his fists. He approached the wire slowly, came to a halt in front of it, and went over in two high, deliberate steps. He now stood on the other side.

Taro turned aound, and after a second he let out a huge breath and smiled. "It's all right!" he announced unnecessarily. "You can come over! Just don't touch the wire!"

Chinatsu smiled and cheered, and hopped over the wire after him. Aki, Ishi, Shikamaru, and Temari followed. "That was good, Taro," said Temari. "Your instincts were right. You should _never_ touch something that might be booby-trapped, unless you're totally sure you know what you're doing." Basking in her praise, he practically glowed. "But," she continued, "this one was just for practice. I didn't camouflage the wires at all. The other traps won't be so easy. You'll _all_"— she flashed one of her scary smiles at Shikamaru—"have to stay alert."

With that they started walking again, and after a few paces Temari withdrew her miniature fan, opened it, and waved it negligently over her shoulder. An echoing _thwang_ told Shikamaru she'd just cut one of the wires, and after that came a groan and a crash like the end of the world. He looked back to see both trees that had supported the wire lying on the ground.

The students were looking back too, with their mouths hanging open. "If we'd touched the wire …" murmured Chinatsu.

"You'd have found yourself dodging a couple of pines," said Temari calmly. "But don't worry, I made sure you'd have a chance to escape. I rigged them to fall slowly."

Temari was as good as her word, and the booby traps grew in danger and complexity as the day wore on. From time to time she would leave the group and move off into the forest, presumably to plant more, and she was now constantly carrying her small fan. Whether she was keeping it out to trigger her traps or as a tool to save the students if they didn't navigate them correctly, Shikamaru couldn't say, but the way she kept waving it around wore at his already frayed nerves. It was entirely possible that was her real goal.

There was a classic two-wire gambit, featuring one visible and one camouflaged tripwire, and logs rigged to drop down at head-height, and even a pit disguised as solid ground (Ishi fell into that one). Temari had also gotten creative, and wrapped colored exploding tags around protruding branches and twigs, to go off if they were jostled. To get his students past all these traps Shikamaru was forced to take a more active role, calling them to a halt and pointing out the various indications of danger until they saw the problem for themselves. He listened to their plans for dealing with the traps and asked probing questions to try to lead them to the right solution, and occasionally had to use his shadow jutsu to prevent them from trying truly suicidal moves. It was tense and exhausting, and all the while Temari just stood there, smirking. It was natural for her to stay out of the conversation since she'd planted the traps, but it was also obvious that she was enjoying every moment of Shikamaru's struggle.

By the time the sun began to sink behind the distant hills Shikamaru was tired, irritable, and low on chakra. If Temari felt the same she wasn't showing it. Her step was as lively as ever, her smile just as predatory. And then they came to the river.

It cut diagonally across their path, running southeast, and was about five meters wide. At the moment it flowed fast and loud, swollen from melting snow, frothing white over protruding rocks.

"Oh," said Chinatsu tiredly, "that looks fast. I don't want to get wet."

"We don't have to," said Taro. "There's a bridge." He pointed to the right, where there was indeed a rickety wooden footbridge that only cleared the water by a few inches. In fact – Shikamaru moved closer to make sure he was seeing things correctly – there were _two_ such bridges, side-by-side and identical in every respect.

"Two bridges?" said Ishi. "Why would anyone build two bridges?"

"They didn't," answered Shikamaru. "One of them's a fake."

Temari smiled wickedly.

Aki was standing with his toes only centimeters from the bank, looking hard at the two bridges. "There are no differences that I can see. No way to tell them apart."

"What about the ground in front of them?" asked Chinatsu. "If there's a path leading to one, we can know that's the real bridge."

Aki looked down, shook his head. "No. I guess not enough people come through here to wear a path."

"Then what should we do? Which one should we take?"

There was a moment of silence while all four students racked their brains.

"Neither," said Taro at last. "You don't touch something that might be booby-trapped, remember? We can't take either bridge. The risk is too great. We'll have to wade across."

Ishi swore, and with a sigh Chinatsu bent down to take off her shoes. "Stop," said Shikamaru loudly. "I can't let you do that. Your conclusion's right, but the water's too fast and getting wet in these temperatures could be dangerous. Anyway if you were full-fledged ninja you'd know how to walk across the surface of the water, so it's not exactly a fair test." He shot Temari a look.

Her smile didn't falter, and she gestured with her fan toward the opposite bank. "So are you going to carry them across one by one, or tell them which bridge to take?"

He considered asking her to tell them which one was the decoy. She'd probably comply after lobbing a few insults his way. But, tired as he was, he still didn't want to concede defeat to her, especially in front of an audience. This trap was too advanced for the students, which had to mean it was intended for him. And that little fan was surely part of it.

In an instant, he decided. He was going to beat her, and fill those green eyes with something besides mockery. Like his father said, eventually a man had to stop running.

"I'll identify the right bridge," he declared. Temari's eyebrows shot up. Shikamaru started removing his weapons, tossing them down on the muddy bank. "Just in case something goes wrong," he explained. "I don't want to be weighed down in the water." Among his discarded weapons was a pair of unusual serrated trench knives.

Shikamaru stepped down onto the shifting surface of the river, using his chakra to stand on the water and resist its flow. He made a few hand signs that caused his shadow, stretching long and dark over the roiling surface, to flex, and looked back to make sure everyone had seen it. "That's also just in case," he called to them, and Temari's smile widened indulgently.

"If you think it'll help," she answered.

"Huh." Shikamaru advanced toward the bridges, examining the nearest one carefully. Like its twin it was little more than a crude plank, weather-beaten and lacking a handrail. Keeping his body half-turned toward the party on the bank, he leaned over for a closer look.

As expected Temari did something with her fan, pulling it backward in an abrupt movement completely different from her previous aimless fidgeting. She was looking at Shikamaru's shadow and not at the pile of weapons he'd tossed away, so she didn't notice when the shadows emanating from the trench knives started to move. They extended across the moist ground, one merging with Temari's shadow and the other with Taro's.

Taro and Temari both froze.

"Can't have you using that fan," said Shikamaru. The corner of his mouth turned up in a wry half-smile. "You've kept it out all day, just so I wouldn't notice when you pulled it out here, right? But you've obviously laid some kind of trap that requires it." Temari, immobilized, didn't answer him, but her eyes glittered dangerously and he could feel her straining against his jutsu. She was very strong. "As for you," Shikamaru continued, nodding toward Taro, "you made your intentions clear yesterday. I figured it was better to take you out of this equation before you had a chance to interfere."

"Wait," said Chinatsu, her eyes darting between Shikamaru and the two Sand-nin, "did you paralyze them, sensei? With your shadow jutsu? But I thought they were our allies!"

"They are. And I'll let them go, just as soon as the Ambassador gets rid of that dangerous fan." Shikamaru raised his right arm and saw Taro and Temari mimic him, then made a throwing motion and opened his hand. For him and for Taro this had no effect, but it caused Temari to hurl her little fan in a high arc that ended with a splash in the river. Satisfied that it was now safe to do so, Shikamaru released his jutsu and turned to regard the bridge again.

Then something happened.

To Shikamaru it happened too quickly to fully understand, just a blur of movement, a dull impact, and a crushing sensation like the tightening of a solid belt around his arms and lower chest. He fell backward, broke the surface with a splash, and sank into the icy depths.

The current sucked at him and tumbled him head-over-heels; he scraped along the riverbed and felt sharp stones bite into his skin; with his arms pinned against his sides he could neither stabilize himself nor swim for the surface. His surroundings were a roiling darkness and his lungs were on fire.

He had time to feel a stab of panic and kick his legs feebly, before some implacable force began to oppose the current, to slow it down and then reverse it. Suddenly the water drained out from under him and he fell, landing with a splat in a truly foul layer of mud. He opened his mouth and took in shuddering, hacking breaths, unable to think of anything but his need for air.

"Quick!" called a clipped female voice. "Grab him and bring him here! I can't hold this much longer!"

Hands seized his ankles and shoulders; he craned his neck to see Taro at his feet and Ishi at his head. The two boys grunted under his weight and hauled him toward a muddy wall which Shikamaru abruptly realized was the bank – they were walking across the bottom of the river.

"I can—" he started to say, and then Taro and Ishi were hoisting him up to Aki and Chinatsu, who worked together to haul him the rest of the way. His rescuers scrambled up beside him.

"Sensei!" panted Taro. "We've got him! You can let go now!"

"Right," said Temari. She was standing about a meter away, with her great iron fan held open. She faced away from them, toward the river, shaking slightly with effort as huge gusts issued from the fan's heavy folds. The effect of her wind was obvious and dramatic – it had pushed into the river and diverted its flow, forcing the waters over the opposing bank and around in a shallow curve to expose a short stretch of riverbed.

As they watched Temari's shoulders sagged and she slumped forward; the wind coming from her fan ceased and with a rushing, roaring sound the river poured back down its bank to resume its natural course. She closed her fan and leaned on it a moment before returning it to its holster and staggering over to join them.

Shikamaru was laid out on his side and saw only her feet and calves. "You're still breathing," she said. "Guess I got to you in time."

He struggled mightily to get up, but whatever had wrapped itself around him before he fell in the water was still in place. He looked down and saw that it was a piece of wood, or rather many pieces linked together by metal hinges into a kind of flexible snake. "What _is_ this thing?" he demanded. "What did you do to me?"

"_I_ didn't do it," said Temari. "That's a simple puppet I transformed to look like the bridge. It can stretch to very long lengths. I meant to use it when you approached the bridge, but you triggered it yourself when you knocked my fan away. There were chakra strings running between the puppet and the fan."

He groaned at the realization of how close he'd come to outwitting her, and how stupidly he'd fouled it up. If he'd just kept her immobilized with her fan in hand this wouldn't have happened. "Well, get it off me. I can barely breathe."

"Whiny as usual. My fan's been lost and the chakra strings are broken, so this might take a while." Her feet moved out of his field of vision; he heard her move around behind his back and crouch down, and then came a clicking noise as she worked with some unseen mechanism back there. Something tumbled audibly into place and suddenly the tension released; the puppet fell off him and he was able to move his arms.

Shikamaru rolled over and pushed himself to his feet, wincing as a host of new bruises and cuts made their presence known. He stood face-to-face with Temari, who was unruffled.

Her eyes moved up and down his body, taking in his dripping, muddy clothing, and she grinned. "You've got to be freezing."

As a matter of fact he had just begun to shiver, but he ignored her comment and demanded, "Since when can you use the puppet-master jutsu?" The thought of her with Kankuro's skills was horrifying.

She shrugged. "I really can't. But like most Sand-nin I trained with simple snake puppets to see if I had the talent, and I got Kankuro to help me rig this up before I left. Suna _is_ the puppet capital of the world."

He scowled and gestured at the students, who were panting on the ground and watching their exchange raptly. "And just what was all this supposed to teach them? You told me these traps would be educational."

She laughed. "I'm surprised at you, Nara. There were a lot of lessons they could take from this. One, overconfidence is a mistake. Two, it's a good idea to travel in the company of someone stronger than yourself. Someone who can rescue you. And three, the correct bridge is the one on the right."

Her audacity in claiming credit for saving his life when she was the one who'd endangered it in the first place was astounding, but his shivering was getting worse and he was in no mood for a troublesome argument anyway. Shikamaru rubbed his hands together to warm them and looked at the students.

"Well, get up," he ordered. "We'll cross the bridge and make camp by the river. We need a fire soon or I'm going to die of exposure and you'll be left alone with this scary woman."

They scrambled across the footbridge and he followed, sloshing with every step. Taro couldn't stop smiling after seeing his mentor triumphant, and the three Leaf-nin kept casting wide-eyed looks in Temari's direction.

"That was _amazing_!" said Aki. "The way you diverted the river! I've never seen power like that before!"

"And look at this!" called Ishi. "A bunch of fish got washed up on the shore here! We won't have to hunt for anything!"

Temari let the students run ahead to collect the fish. She looked at Shikamaru. "And I didn't even _mean_ to catch those ones," she said softly.

He shook his head and sloshed away.

* * *

Temari kept watch by the light of a dying fire. Shiny black eyes looked down on her from above – another crow. She frowned; she hadn't known those things were so common here, and they gave her the creeps. She picked up a rock and squinted into the darkness, but the crow seemed to read her intent and took off, flapping away into the night.

"Good riddance," she muttered.

The others were all asleep. Soon she'd rouse Taro and get some rest herself, but for now she was alone. The students were naturally exhausted and slept deeply, and after hours of shivering Shikamaru was dead to the world. She smiled at the memory of him wet and helpless at her feet, and the way his students were totally in awe of her. If her aim had been to humiliate him she'd certainly succeeded.

In fact her plans had been _so_ successful she wondered if she ought to continue. Shikamaru had said as much, after the kids had fallen asleep. He'd peered at her through the crackling flames and asked seriously, "Is this enough for you, Temari? I've already said I'm sorry, and now you've made me uncomfortable and embarrassed. Are we even?"

Even as part of her dismissed his words as a transparent attempt to deter her, another had to admit their basic accuracy. That nonsense with the clone hadn't caused her _that_ much trouble, and by her estimate today's events had already evened the score. Yet somehow she still felt unsatisfied; somehow she knew her work here was not yet done. There was still a sharp splinter of anger in her chest that vengeance hadn't dislodged.

What exactly _did_ she want?

She'd thought it was revenge, but clearly that wasn't true. So what was it?

Temari shook her head hard, as if to shake the nagging questions loose. She didn't usually doubt herself or her instincts, and this was no time to start. For now her present course felt right, and if she kept to it she'd eventually reach a point when she knew she was done with Shikamaru. She was persistent and strong and there was no question she'd get everything she wanted, even if she wasn't entirely sure what that meant.

With that thought Temari went to wake Taro.

**A/N: Many apologies for the long delay. This chapter turned out much longer than I expected. Many thanks for all the reviews -- the feedback was incredibly helpful. I'd love to hear what people think of the blurbs I've put at the top of each chapter. I personally love these sorts of things and have always wanted to try writing them, but I regard them as an experiment and would like to know how my readers feel about them. Thanks for reading, and also for your input!**


	4. Rapprochement, Provocation

_"I can't think of anything more troublesome. It's too bad arranged marriages have gone out of style." _--Shikamaru Nara, on romance

_"I tried that once. He screamed."_ --Temari of the Sand, on romance

"Sensei, do you think a kunoichi is as good in battle as a man?"

The question came from the little girl, Chinatsu, who'd been shooting furtive looks at Temari all morning. Clearly she'd been deeply impressed by yesterday's display of raw power and been working up the courage to initiate this conversation ever since. She'd just dropped back from the other students to walk beside Temari, and kept her eyes fixed on the ground as she spoke.

Temari glanced at the girl, who stood no higher than her chest, with some annoyance. Questions were fine but timidity wasn't, and even at that age she'd been a lot more self-possessed. The Leaf tolerated a far wider range of personalities than the Sand. "Why would you ask that?" she demanded sharply.

Chinatsu met her eyes briefly and then looked down again. "Well, it's just … certain people keep saying that girls can only be medics or spies and don't belong in combat."

Temari snorted. "Would these _certain_ _people_ have spiky hair and a tendency to overuse the word 'troublesome'?" Beside her Shikamaru rolled his eyes. He'd barely said two words to her since last night, but his reaction now told her he was in fact paying very close attention. He was good at that, pretending to be a lot less acute than he actually was, or maybe he was just switching between two wildly different parts of his personality. In either case it would never have been allowed in Suna.

It took the girl a moment to unravel what Temari meant, and when she finally did her whole body stiffened. "No of course not!" she said in alarm. "Shikamaru-sensei, you know I wasn't—"

"Skip it," he said mildly. "The Ambassador's just making fun of me. You may have noticed she likes to do that to pass the time. It's only meaningless chatter, which is something girls are _definitely_ better at. But"—he turned to Temari—"you still haven't answered her question."

His tone was challenging, which was just fine with her. "I've never noticed any difference," Temari told the girl. "I guess some men might have a strength advantage, but that only applies to the ones who spend the day training and not napping." She smirked at Shikamaru. "Being a girl doesn't make you weak in battle. But doubting yourself, or constantly wondering if you belong there, does."

Chinatsu's eyes widened. "So, you mean—"

"I mean that you should stop thinking about the fact that you're a girl and start kicking some ass."

The girl looked stunned, then thrilled. "Wow!" she said, and sprinted back up to join the others. Once there she shoved roughly past Taro to take the lead.

"Great," said Shikamaru dryly, "you've made another one."

"Another _what_?"

"You know – another troublesome woman. She'll be smacking them around by the end of this mission."

"They deserve some pain if they're too weak to take it."

"Huh." He paused, seeming to chew over his words, which was something she'd noticed him doing a lot these last few days. Apparently he was having difficulty talking to her. "So you never heard that sort of thing from your brothers, then?"

His question was neither a veiled insult nor germane to the mission; it threw her off completely. "What sort of thing are you talking about?"

He shrugged. "You know, that whole 'women are weak' line. Your brothers never used it on you?"

A personal question, then. She'd be justified in refusing to answer, but found she didn't want to. "I'm the oldest," she replied, "so for a long time I knew a lot more _ninjutsu_ than Kankuro. He wouldn't have dared insult me, and by the time he caught up he was old enough to know better. As for Gaara …" She trailed off.

"Yeah, I get it," he said, and for some reason Temari believed he actually did. Her relationship with her youngest brother was a tangled mix of fear, love, respect, and blame that she considered entirely private, but with Shikamaru she felt at ease. Come to think of it, she'd confided in him about her family at their last meeting, too.

"So," she said, casting about for any way to change the subject, "I've never seen those trench knives before. I mean the ones you used yesterday to freeze me and Taro. I thought your jutsu didn't require any special tools."

"Yeah," he said, "I guess you wouldn't have seen them." He was trying to sound casual but there was something extra, a layer of some unidentifiable feeling beneath his words.

"Are they new, then?"

"Not exactly. I got them from Asuma."

So they'd belonged to his teacher, the barrel-chested man with a beard and cigarette. The one killed by Akatsuki. She didn't know what to say.

But Shikamaru wasn't waiting for any empty words of comfort. He glanced at her quickly and then drew one of the trench knives, flipping it over in his hand so that the blade pointed toward his body. He offered it to her. "They're special," he explained as she took it carefully. "They absorb the chakra of the user. For me that means shadows."

The blade was cold and unexpectedly heavy, and Temari could feel multiple pits and scratches in its worn metal. But a look at its edge confirmed that it had been kept sharp and ready for action.

"Try running your chakra through it," Shikamaru suggested.

She did; it was not significantly different from using her fan. The knife drank in her power until tiny gusts of wind began swirling around its tip. She'd never had much use for edged weapons, preferring the keenness of the wind itself, but this one seemed to understand her. "Amazing," she murmured.

"Throw it at something," said Shikamaru. "A tree or even a rock. I think you'll be surprised."

Temari had some idea of what would happen but was intrigued enough to try it anyway. A couple of meters away stood a mossy boulder, jutting up between two maples and broad as an upended table. She took aim and let the blade fly, and was satisfied to see it strike precisely in the center of the target. It bit into the stone, which she'd expected, and then proceeded to drive cleanly through it, which she had not. The knife cleaved the rock in two and buried itself in the hard ground on the other side. A little fox barked in alarm and broke from cover behind the rock; a missing chunk of hair on its head testified to its near brush with death.

"That's incredible!" she exclaimed. "It cut through stone like it was nothing!"

"Yeah, as chakra weapons go, they're pretty good." Shikamaru made a few hand signs, causing his shadow to extend and retrieve the thrown knife. "They usually take some time to master. But since you channel your chakra through an instrument anyway and you're a wind type, I figured you'd catch on fast. Asuma himself never did it better."

He said it simply, in the same mild tone he used when discussing _shogi_, as if it were a truth obvious enough for anyone to see. But the scope of his compliment, and the trust he demonstrated in handing her what had to be a precious keepsake, were astounding. Temari's mouth opened and then closed again, and all she could find to say was, "Thanks."

He did not acknowledge her gratitude. "The fan," he said without looking at her, "where'd it come from? I've never seen anything like it."

Another personal question. Just what was Shikamaru up to? "It came from Baki-sensei. He commissioned it specially after I failed to master puppetry."

She vividly remembered the day she'd gotten it, the way it had stood taller than her and outweighed Gaara. It was unwieldy and complex, and yet between the little girl and the fan there was an instant affinity. Temari had known immediately that this tool was meant for her, they she and it would gain power together.

"Smart man," Shikamaru commented. "The fan suits you. It's impossible to overlook, unique, and … unexpectedly attractive." He took a deep breath and turned to look at her.

His expression was usually blank or bored, but now he had paled and was smiling slightly. His body language was all wrong too – he stood unnaturally straight and had clenched his fists.

_He's not talking about the fan._ Certainty hit her like a blow. Shikamaru was gifted, and in this light, with his veneer of disinterest gone, he was almost handsome.

She returned his gaze until the right response came to her. She cleared her throat. "Your jutsu isn't as flashy. It's subtle, but that's exactly what makes it interesting."

He swallowed, and she waited. "I think …." he said, "I think it's time we stopped for lunch." Then he took off, sprinting through the trees to catch up to the students.

In his wake Temari seethed. Her anger, quiescent throughout the morning and nearly nonexistent in the last few minutes, flared again with frightening intensity. This time, however, it included something else, an understanding she had lacked. Ino, Shikamaru's pretty teammate, had been right after all.

At last Temari knew what she wanted from Shikamaru, and the real source of her rage.

* * *

Shikamaru silently cursed himself. He'd nearly had it, and had pulled back at the last second out of cowardice. Last night Temari had declared that she wasn't done with him yet, but then this morning she'd been oddly quiet and agreeable. She'd told him she was done setting traps and a companionable air had settled over their walk through the woods. The day was much warmer than yesterday, with the scent of spring in the air and a gentle sun in the sky – the perfect time for romantic overtures.

Everybody liked compliments, and Temari was no different. Shikamaru's words to her had been the truth, the kind of thing he frequently thought but never voiced until now. She'd even reciprocated with words that made his guts twist into knots and his heart pound erratically.

And then he'd screwed it up.

His reason was old-fashioned fear. He liked to have his moves planned out in advance, with a backup plan and a backup for the backup, and he'd panicked when he realized he didn't know what to do next. Should he tell Temari he liked her, without knowing for sure how she felt about him? That was like diving into a pool without knowing its depth. Should he try to touch her? _Way_ too risky. Should he compliment her again? Change the subject? In the end, at a loss, he'd chosen retreat.

But judging from the glare Temari was shooting him from across the little clearing where they sat, retreat was the wrong choice. Their short-lived rapport was completely gone, replaced by a palpable acrimony. Shikamaru was now worse off than when this whole mess started.

"Sensei," said Taro, sitting at Temari's right, "this is the last fish. Please take it." He held it out to her earnestly.

Temari's stunt with the river had washed up a lot of fish, enough to provide breakfast earlier and lunch now. But that bounty was at an end. Temari looked down at Taro's offering and scowled. "You'd better save that for yourself," she told him. "I don't need it."

Taro's face fell and he ate the fish in silence. When he finished he cast the bones into their group's impromptu trash heap at the edge of the clearing. The same fox from earlier, which had evidently followed them hoping for this exact occurrence, crept into view and began furiously gnawing on the bones.

"That's weird," said Chinatsu. "Shouldn't a wild animal be scared of us?"

"Food's scarce this time of year," said Aki knowledgably. "They'll take risks to feed themselves. We'll be feeling the same tonight, if we don't find something to hunt along the way."

They fell into a grim silence at the thought of impending hunger.

"That fox knows better than to be afraid of Leaf-nin," snapped Temari. She was looking at Shikamaru.

"What's that supposed to mean?" demanded Ishi angrily. "Our village is just as strong as yours!"

She smiled without a trace of mirth. "You really believe that?"

"I do!" said Chinatsu. Aki nodded in agreement, while Taro looked on, wide-eyed.

"Then prove it," said Temari.

The students exchanged puzzled looks.

"Let's have a contest. Leaf versus Sand, your teacher versus Taro's, Shikamaru versus me. We can have a sparring match to settle this question once and for all."

"Yes!" exclaimed Taro. "No one's stronger than you, sensei!"

"Kick her butt, Shikamaru-sensei," said Aki darkly.

Shikamaru was already shaking his head. "No way. For one thing, it's a waste of time, and for another, there's no one here to treat injuries. We shouldn't lose sight of the goal of this exercise, which is to train all of you."

Temari snorted. "As expected, backing out of a challenge. I suppose you think a match would be too troublesome?"

"Yeah, that's right."

Her eyes narrowed. "If my fan scares you, how about we restrict ourselves to _taijutsu_? It's not exactly my strong suit – you might even be able to land a blow."

She had to be seriously angry to propose something like that. Neither of them was much good at hand-to-hand combat. Shikamaru looked straight at her, into eyes that were lovely even when filled with rage, and said, "I don't want to fight you, Temari."

"Coward." She was breathing very hard, and her cheeks were flushed.

"Maybe."

Her jaw tightened; in one fluid movement she rose to her feet and drew her fan. With an iron clang she slammed it onto the ground, and all four students flinched. Shikamaru didn't move. "Then it's about time we got moving, isn't it? We're supposed to reach that marker before dark."

Shikamaru stood up slowly, and the students mimicked him. Under a burden of tension and with many furtive glances, they left the camp. The fox gobbled up one last scrap of food and trotted behind them, probably planning on scrounging from the scraps of their next meal too. Shikamaru looked over his shoulder at the little beast, with its russet tufted ears and keen black eyes. It regarded him for a moment and gave an odd, distinctly un-foxlike moan.

"Yeah," he muttered under his breath, "my sentiments exactly."

"Taro," said Temari from up ahead, speaking loudly enough for everyone to hear, "did I ever tell you about the time I battled one of the Sound four?"

Shikamaru turned and strode forward, catching up with the others. "No you didn't, sensei!" Taro replied enthusiastically. "Please tell me now!"

She grinned. "The woman's name was Tayuya, and she used the most powerful _genjutsu_ I've ever seen. You know about _genjutsu_, right?"

"Illusions," said Chinatsu, who like Aki and Ishi was listening attentively. "_Genjutsu_ refers to illusions cast using chakra."

"That's right. Tayuya used a flute to cast her jutsu, making music that manipulated her enemies' sense of hearing. When I arrived she'd already battled a Leaf-nin and was ready to kill him."

"And you saved him?" asked Taro.

"Yes. He was outmatched and had no way of coping with the _genjutsu_, but my Cyclone Scythe jutsu deflected the sound and drove back Tayuya at the same time. Then I summoned my weasel, Kamatari, to perform the Quick Beheading Dance. It knocked down the trees she was hiding in and crushed her."

"Incredible!" said Taro.

"Do you remember the name of the Leaf-nin you saved?" asked Chinatsu. "He owes you a debt."

"His name is Shikamaru Nara," said Shikamaru from behind them. "And he's well aware of his obligations, thanks."

Taro and the three Academy students gaped at him. "You got saved by a girl?" asked Ishi. "That's so _lame._"

Shikamaru shrugged. He happened to agree, but was hardly going to admit it. Temari hadn't turned to look at him with the others, but he could see enough of her face to make out her huge, predatory smile.

"That's not as lame was what happened afterward," she said smoothly.

"Why? What happened?" asked Taro.

"We went back to Konoha, where some of Nara's teammates were being treated in the hospital. When we got word that they'd be all right, he burst into tears and cried like a baby."

"He _cried_?" asked Aki. "Seriously? Is that true, Shikamaru-sensei?"

"Yeah, it's true." There was no point in lying; he'd cried because he cared for his companions. Denied a chance to punish him physically, Temari had apparently settled for reminding him of old humiliations. It could have been worse, really – he didn't care much what these kids thought of him.

"Lame," said Ishi again, while Chinatsu and Taro shook their heads. Shikamaru genuinely hoped they never understood what had driven him to tears that day.

The rest of the afternoon passed rather uneventfully, with Temari telling several more stories designed to embarrass Shikamaru. He bore it in silence. He could have retaliated, of course, but if she could exorcise her wrath as she'd done yesterday, he might get another chance to reach out to her. In spite of himself he wanted that opportunity.

The sun was low when they reached their target, a scarlet flag emblazoned with the symbol of the Leaf and planted near the edge of the wood. A few meters beyond it the forest gave way to rolling grassy hills studded with boulders.

"We've made it!" said Chinatsu, jogging to the flag to take it down. "And we did it in two days! If we just keep the same pace on the way back, we'll pass this exercise!"

"_If_ we can keep up the pace," said Ishi. "We'll need food for that, and we haven't caught anything since lunch. We need to hunt."

"Well," Taro began, "we can fish when we return to the river, and until then—"

He was cut off the by a piercing shriek. It came from Chinatsu, who was now streaking back toward them with a panicked look on her face.

"What—" said Shikamaru, then fell silent when he saw what had frightened her. It was a bear, whose matted brown hide hung from its body like an oversized garment. Yellowed claws gouged into the earth as it ambled toward them from the edge of the wood, and a low rumbling issued from its throat. The bear had just emerged from winter hibernation and was ravenous.

Temari drew her fan. "Stand back," she ordered.

"No! Sensei!" Taro dashed forward, between Temari and the bear, and spread his arms. "Please don't put yourself at risk! _I'll_ kill it!" He pulled out a _kunai_, and by watching the wavering movement of its tip Shikamaru could tell just how much the boy was trembling.

"Get out of the way." Temari reached out to yank her student back, just as Shikamaru's shadow extended past them both to seize the growling bear.

"Taro's got a point," Shikamaru called to her. "This is supposed to be an exercise for the students, right? Dealing with wild animals is certainly part of survival. We should let them take care of it."

"And how exactly are they supposed to do that? Cutting it will only make it angry. It could eat these kids and still have room for dessert."

Shikamaru looked at the bear, now frozen and definitely unhappy about it, and thought she was probably right. He turned back to his three students, cowering behind him, and raised his eyebrows. "Any ideas?"

"Run!" said Ishi. "We should run!"

"Don't be stupid," snapped Chinatsu. "Just because it's big doesn't mean it's slow. It would be sure to catch at least one of us, and since _you're_ the slowest, that would probably be you." Ishi's pudgy face blanched, and then she added in a thoughtful voice, "Though the rest of us could get away while it's busy eating you, I suppose."

"Sacrificing a teammate is a possible outcome for any mission, right sensei?" asked Taro.

"That's not something you consider as a first option," said Shikamaru sharply. "The lives of your comrades are the most important thing, always. You don't jeopardize them lightly."

"Tch." Temari tossed her head, and he could guess her thoughts. For her, a Sand kunoichi, the most important thing was the mission. But he'd seen enough to know she wasn't as ruthless as she pretended.

"Then what?" asked Aki. "What do we do? Temari-sensei's right about the _kunai_, and we'd never get close enough to use it anyway. We need to kill it, and we need to do it from a distance."

Taro's face lit up, and he reached into his pack to withdraw a slip of paper. "Paper bombs!" he said brightly. "We'll blow it up!"

"Will one be enough?" asked Chinatsu.

"Sure! You guys stand around the bear at equal distances from it, so it won't know which way to go. While it's confused I'll ignite the bomb and throw it."

She gulped. "Shikamaru-sensei, will that work?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. It doesn't sound crazy to me, so I'll let you try."

"Then stop talking about it," said Temari, " and do it."

Ishi, Aki, and Chinatsu crept through the underbrush to station themselves at different points, all about ten meters from the bear. Taro, meanwhile, attached his bomb to a _kunai_ and gripped the blade's haft tightly.

Taro looked at Shikamaru. "I think we're ready."

"Okay." With some relief Shikamaru released the bear from his jutsu; he'd gotten tired of holding the thing. He kept his shadow at the ready, however, and Temari stepped back beside him and opened her fan. Neither of them had any intention of allowing this to get out of hand.

The bear, meanwhile, was outraged. Upon being freed it let out a tree-rattling roar and stood on its hind legs, clawing furiously at the air. With a thud it dropped back down on all fours, and swung its head from one Academy student to the other.

"Do it now!" screamed Ishi, his voice several octaves higher than usual. His cry appeared to make up the bear's mind; it looked directly at him and roared.

Taro slid his thumb along the _kunai_'s blade, drawing a thin red line across his flesh. He wiped the blood on the attached paper bomb, whose writing commenced to change colors and glow ominously. He took aim.

"Timed bombs?" asked Shikamaru quietly. Those were only one sort of paper bomb; another variety could be thrown and then detonated with a hand sign.

"It's all he's got the control for right now," said Temari. Her eyes were boring into the back of her student's head as though she could will him to succeed.

Ishi screamed again, this time without words, and began stumbling backwards. The bear lifted a foot to follow, and then Taro threw the _kunai_. It landed short of its target by a couple of meters. There was an ear-splitting _boom_ and a white flash, a moment of noise and light when it was impossible to tell what, if any, effect the bomb had had.

When he regained his senses Shikamaru saw a new clearing surrounding the _kunai_. The ground was empty and blackened, with only a few smoldering fragments of plants remaining. Small fires burned here and there; Chinatsu and Aki ran forward to beat them out. And the bear was lying unmoving on its side, its flank a bloody mess.

"I did it!" shouted Taro, turning back to Temari in exhilaration.

She smiled, a lovely look of genuine happiness that drew Shikamaru's gaze like a magnet, and closed her fan. "You did," she agreed. "Good job." Then she moved to examine the carcass.

Shikamaru was doing the same from a distance. He noticed, before anyone else, the way its sides were rising and falling. "Temari!" he called. "Get away from that thing! It's _not dead_!"

Its paw twitched, and Temari was now within reach of its huge claws. She'd survive its attack … probably.

"Yaaah!" With a wild battle-cry Taro launched himself forward, hurtling across the wasted clearing to throw himself onto the bear. It roared, recovering from shock, and rolled sideways to stand on its feet. The boy was cast down, under the beast's head, one bite away from death.

"Taro!" shouted Temari, and raised her fan like a club.

Taro moved his arm, raising his right hand toward the bear's face to drive the _kunai_ he held into its eye. The bear reared up, thrashing and grunting, carving long gashes across Taro's chest, before giving one last shudder and collapsing like a marionette with its strings cut.

There could be no question that it was finally dead, nor that Taro was injured and bleeding. He pulled himself clear and sat up.

Temari crouched beside him and seized his shoulder roughly. "Look at me!" she ordered, turning him toward her. "You're lucky, the wounds are shallow. You could have died, you realize that?"

Taro was pale, shaky. "I-I know sensei. But I had to do something. I couldn't let it hurt you." Gingerly he reached toward one of the gashes; Temari slapped his hand away.

"That's the stupidest thing I ever heard! I'm a _jounin_, and I can handle a wounded animal. But I _can't_ bring a dead idiot back to life, understand?"

He nodded. Shikamaru and the three Academy students drew closer. "What's done is done," said Shikamaru. "We've got to wrap the injuries and get moving. We should also take some of this meat with us."

Temari scowled, clearly not done berating her student. But Shikamaru felt sorry for the boy, wounded and shrinking under his teacher's sharp tongue. He knew Temari well enough to notice her tightened lips and white-knuckle grip on her fan, but Taro surely didn't realize her anger came from concern.

And Taro hadn't been the only careless one in this situation. Temari should never have approached the bear without first checking to see that it was dead, and for his part, Shikamaru had failed to notice the bear's breathing until too late. They had both been distracted, with disastrous results. Their strange dance was now putting their students at risk. Something had to give.

So that night, after they made camp and the students had fallen asleep, Shikamaru looked at Temari across the campfire and steeled himself to speak.

"Shikamaru," she said, preempting him.

"What?" He found that his mouth had gone dry.

"What is that?" She pointed over his head, at the edge of the forest. After a second he turned in that direction.

In the north, very close to their present location and in territory that was supposed to be deserted, a column of smoke curled languidly above the treetops. It was easy to see in the light of the full moon, an unexpected black haze that heralded nothing good.


	5. Sacrifice

"_Sometimes you have to sacrifice a pawn. But only poor shogi players do it often." -- _Shikamaru Nara, on sacrifice

"_If you're skilled it shouldn't be necessary. If you're not skilled it should be you." – _Temari of the Sand, on sacrifice

Shikamaru returned to the campsite at dawn, to find Temari waiting tensely with her fan drawn. The moment she heard his approach she sent a gust of wind his way, lifting him off his feet and knocking him flat.

"Who's there?" she challenged.

"It's me," said Shikamaru tiredly. He blinked blearily up at the colorless sky; after a night without sleep he could feel his eyelids drooping from exhaustion.

"Prove it." If Temari was also affected by tiredness, increased combativeness was the only sign. "Who did you tell me I ought to help, before you left the Sand last time?"

"Gaara," said Shikamaru promptly. "I told you he was still having trouble coping with the past, and that even a scary woman like you had the ability to help him. I might've been wrong about that part, though."

He sat up cautiously, to find her giving him a hard look. She closed her fan. "What did you find?"

"It's not good. There's a pair of ninja, and from the bits of conversation I overhead, they're on their way home after infiltrating the Leaf."

"A spying mission? Did they get anything of value?"

"Oh yeah. They've got a big bag they said was full of documents and samples from a high-security lab. It seems like they were after research conducted by a certain ex-Leaf-nin – Orochimaru."

Temari sucked in a breath, and her grip tightened on her weapon. She knew Orochimaru of course, as an erstwhile ally and her father's murderer. She wouldn't take anything connected to him lightly. "Any idea what their intentions are?"

"Not specifically. But they were wearing Sound forehead-protectors, which haven't been seen for years. My guess is they're former followers of Orochimaru, acting out of some kind of sick loyalty to his memory."

"And they thought it was safe to light a fire, this far away from the village." She smiled viciously. "But they didn't know we'd be here, did they? So what's the plan?"

Shikamaru's brow knit. "Plan?"

"The plan to bring them down, of course! We both know they can't be allowed to escape with that research."

He was shaking his head before she even finished. "I agree it's a problem to let that data go, but I've got no intention of pursuing them."

"What do you mean? They violated your village! It's your duty to stop them!"

He meant to answer her calmly, he really did, but his tiredness, combined with the past days' tension and her implied questioning of his devotion to the Leaf, somehow got to him, and he found himself raising his voice. "My _duty_ is protect these kids who were entrusted to me! That comes first, before anything! If I run off to play hero, what's to stop the enemy from doubling back and killing them? How do we know they haven't got comrades somewhere else in these woods?" He took a deep breath, trying to regain his cool. No one got under his skin like she did. "We've been lucky not to be discovered yet. We need to take this chance to escape and inform the Hokage, so she can sent out tracker teams."

"But by that time the enemy could be long gone!"

"That's a risk we're just gonna have to take."

Temari's lip curled in disgust. "You may be too cowardly to defend your own village, but I'm not. I'm an ally of the Leaf, and if you won't act, then I _will_. Go ahead and play babysitter all the way back to the village – I'll meet you at the gates with your enemies' heads." She turned to leave.

In the next instant she found herself straining against her own muscles, frozen in place even as she tried to move forward.

"Sorry," said Shikamaru, whose shadow was now stretched between them, "I can't let you do that. You shouldn't just abandon Taro, and I can't just abandon you. Those guys have got to be pretty good to have done what they did, and if I lose the Kazekage's sister there'll be hell to pay."

She snarled with frustration and turned her head to glare at him; he was allowing her some minimal freedom of movement. "Let me go, dammit! I don't need protection from someone like you!"

"Right now, you sure do. You're a _jounin_, and you're smart, but you're acting like some kind of bloodthirsty foot soldier. That's not how we do things." He paused, weighing his next words. "You're obviously angry at me, and that's fine, but it's a bad reason to die."

Her eyes glinted dangerously. "If you think—"

"Sensei." She was cut off by a low voice, tremulous but piercing, coming from beside the campfire's ashes. There, next to three wide-eyed Academy students, stood Taro. "Sensei, if you're going to battle, I'm coming with you." He drew a _kunai_ and thrust it out aggressively, bringing into full view the bandages they'd applied last night, stained red with blood.

"Shikamaru-sensei, are there really enemies nearby?" asked Chinatsu. "Are we in danger?"

So apparently they'd heard everything, probably after being awakened by Shikamaru and Temari's argument. Without a doubt their training on this mission had been compromised by their chaperones.

"You're not in danger," Shikamaru reassured her. "We won't let anything happen to you. There _are_ a couple of enemies nearby, but if we move fast we can get out of range before they're aware of us."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Ishi hoisted his pack. "Let's get out of here!"

Shikamaru looked at Temari again. She was staring at her student. "You know he can't go into battle," he said softly. "He's injured, and if you leave him behind he'll fight me tooth and nail to join you. Either way he could end up more seriously hurt. And I'm not about to just let you go. Do you think you can take me _and_ those Sound-nin, and also protect the four of them?"

She clenched her jaw. "Even Gaara would have trouble doing all that."

"Exactly. The students have to come first, regardless of the consequences. This is the way it's got to be."

Her shoulders sagged slightly. "Fine. You win. Let me go and I promise I won't run after them."

He released his jutsu, and she spun around and holstered her fan. To the students, who were watching but unable to hear this last low-voiced exchange, she barked, "Don't just stand there, start packing up! We're leaving in five minutes!" They hurried to comply.

Once they got moving, this time at a substantially faster pace, Shikamaru took his place beside her and said, "There'll be some in the village who agree with you, when we get back. They'll call me a coward for this decision. But I'll make sure none of the blame falls on you, since you didn't agree with me anyway."

Temari made a derisive sound. "I told you, I don't need your protection. It's not as if I gave up the chase because you made me, I just decided you were right. You can keep your chivalry to yourself."

"Right."

She shot him a glare. "I'm serious, Nara. I take responsibility for my own actions, good and bad. I don't expect anyone else to take care of me. Especially not you."

Especially not him. Even if he was inclined to volunteer for the job.

* * *

The relaxed feeling of an easy, risk-free mission was now completely gone. The students were quiet and frightened, and blood loss combined with fear had left Taro white as a sheet. He was breathing heavily, struggling to keep up.

Even the animals seemed to have caught a new sense of urgency. A little gray squirrel ran alongside them, leaping from tree to tree and chittering incessantly. Shikamaru frowned at it.

"What?" asked Temari.

"The animals," he said shortly. "They've been acting weird this whole time."

"You mean the bear?"

"No, the bear was the only one that _wasn't_ acting strange. Trying to eat us after emerging from hibernation makes sense. But following us around, like this squirrel and that fox yesterday, doesn't."

"And the crows," Temari added. "They were everywhere the first day, but I haven't seen one since."

"You've got a point." Shikamaru glanced at the squirrel again. It had frozen in place on a nearby branch. "And look at that – I think it's actually _listening_ to us."

"Paranoia," said Temari, but she didn't sound convinced. "You don't think this is some jutsu of the enemy, do you? A way to spy on us?"

"If it is, and they've known our location since we left Konoha, then why haven't they attacked? What are they waiting for?"

They exchanged worried looks, and then Temari grabbed a fallen branch and swung it like a club at the squirrel. The creature leaped away in time to avoid the blow, racing off through the underbrush. "The next time we stop," she said, "I'm going to reconnoiter the area, to make sure they aren't following us."

"I don't want anyone going off alone."

"I'll stay nearby, Shikamaru, but we can't leave ourselves open to ambush."

She was totally correct, and he didn't like it one bit. He sighed. "This is a mess," he said quietly.

She sighed too. "It sure is."

"We've just got to focus on getting the kids home safely. That's the only thing that matters right now."

"Agreed."

Immediately the air seemed to clear a little, and Shikamaru felt inexplicably lighter. Even in the face of mortal danger, he was more comfortable when he and Temari were on the same side.

When they next stopped to catch their breaths and drink water, Temari vanished into the forest. She'd instructed Shikamaru not to wait for her, but he did anyway, unwilling to risk leaving her behind. He and the students sat tensely, jumping at small noises and peering over their shoulders.

"I should have gone with her," said Taro after a while. He'd been visibly unhappy when she set off without him.

"I already told you, she'll move faster alone," said Shikamaru. "She's coming right back."

"But what if she meets the enemy?"

"You honestly think you'd be any help?"

Taro said nothing, just scowled and folded his arms.

Ishi snickered. "The way you act around her is lame. Like a lost puppy."

"It's obvious you've got a crush on her," Chinatsu agreed.

Taro looked up in surprise. "It is?"

"To anyone with eyes, yes."

"You wouldn't even need eyes," said Ishi. "Just ears. Then you could hear him talking – 'I love your booby traps, Temari-sensei!' and 'I'll kill that bear for you, Temari-sensei!' and 'I worship the ground you walk on, Temari-sensei!'" Ishi imitated Taro in a thin reedy voice that was eerily accurate.

Taro had turned beet-red and looked ready to fight. "Lay off him," said Shikamaru. "Being devoted to your teacher isn't so bad. It's better than not appreciating them enough."

"It's not like he's got a chance with her anyway," muttered Aki.

"What's that?" asked Taro.

Aki shrugged. "Well, she's too old for you, isn't she? And it's pretty obvious she's taken."

"_Taken_?"

"By Shikamaru-sensei," said Chinatsu knowingly. "Isn't that right, sensei? That's why you two are always fighting. My sister acts just like that with her fiancé."

Shikamaru gaped at her. "That's, uh …"

"If she is your girlfriend, she's sure got you whipped," said Ishi. "No real man would stand for all that stuff she did to you. I used to think you were cool!"

"She is _not_ my girlfriend!" Shikamaru could hardly believe he was having this conversation with a bunch of ten-year-olds, or that those same ten-year-olds were now looking at him with pity.

"So you haven't won her over yet, sensei? Why not?" Chinatsu seemed genuinely puzzled. "It's obvious she likes you."

Shikamaru ran a hand over his hair. "I'm not going to discuss this with you guys. The ambassador and I are colleagues, and that's all. Now stop with the troublesome questions –we don't want to attract attention. For all we know the enemy could be watching us right now, waiting until we get distracted."

That shut them up nicely. They fell silent and resumed darting looks all around, searching for any sign of movement. Except Taro, of course – he sat very still, brooding, probably turning the other students' words over and over in his mind. Now his had another reason to hate Shikamaru.

What a pain this mission had turned into.

Temari took longer than expected to return. Forty-five minutes after her departure she finally materialized out of the shadows, with a spectacular purple bruise covering the left side of her face.

"Sensei!" cried Taro, leaping to his feet. "You're hurt!"

Moving stiffly, she reached for her canteen and took a few swallows of water. She lowered the canteen and looked at Shikamaru. "_Why_ are you still here? I expected to find you closer to the village!"

The suppressed panic in her tone did not escape him. "I didn't want us to split up for longer than necessary. What happened to you?"

"Booby trap. They may not have known about us this morning, but they do now, and they're cutting off our avenues of escape. The signs I found indicate that they're moving back toward Konoha."

Chinatsu clapped a hand to her mouth. "Do you mean they're trying to cut us off before we get home?"

"That's what I mean."

"Then we've got to run! We can't wait here for them to find us!"

"I agree," said Shikamaru. "It'll be a sprint back to the village, at the quickest pace we can manage. No sleeping and no meals until we're home." He surveyed his young charges, all of whom looked absolutely terrified. "Just do what I say, and I swear I won't let you die."

That didn't seem to comfort them much, probably because they hadn't exactly seen Shikamaru at his best during this mission. But he meant what he said, and would die to save any of them.

They set off, on the closest thing to a dead run they could manage. It wasn't nearly fast enough; the Academy students weren't yet able to use chakra to aid their travel, and Taro was weakened by blood loss. Soon even Ishi, who was overweight, was easily outpacing the older boy.

"We'll never escape at this rate," Temari hissed, watching her flagging student through narrowed eyes. "That trap that got me was ridiculously advanced. These people are _good_, Shikamaru – these kids won't stand a chance if we meet them."

"Maybe one of us should carry him." Shikamaru glanced sideways at Temari, who was still moving as if in pain. "I'll take the first turn. That should speed us up."

"No." In one fluid movement she drew her fan and opened it. "If anyone's going to carry Taro, it's me." She swung the fan once, from left to right, grunting slightly with effort. Taro was lifting his leg for another laborious stride forward, teeth gritted and chest heaving, when the gust of wind sent by his teacher found him, lifted him up, and set him down five meters ahead of his last position. In shock he looked back over his shoulder.

"Just keep going!" she called to him. "I'll give you a boost from time to time!"

Even in profile, Taro's expression was clearly unhappy. He opened his mouth to answer, and Temari unleashed another gust that pushed him still farther away. "No time to argue!" she yelled. "If you stand still it makes more work for me!"

Taro shut his mouth and sprinted away, now with a head start on all the others. He was working hard to maintain his lead, so that Temari wouldn't have to help him again.

"You can't keep that up indefinitely," Shikamaru pointed out. "Even your chakra won't last forever."

"I've got enough for this," she said grimly.

He decided to let it go for now. But there was no way she could keep spending chakra like that after a night with no sleep, very little food, and a serious blow to the head. Eventually her reserves would run out.

That happened after several more grueling hours passed by in a haze of agony. Taro did his best to spare his teacher but lacked the strength; soon she was having to give him a wind-boost every other stride, and slowing down herself as a result. Sweat stood out on her pale brow and her breath came in ragged gasps.

Temari took a step and didn't lift her foot high enough, and tripped on an exposed tree root. She lurched forward and just kept falling, all the way to the ground with her fan beside her. She lay still in the dim afternoon light.

"Stop!" called Shikamaru, before halting to kneel beside her. He couldn't tell whether she was breathing or not. Heart pounding painfully, he reached out to touch her shoulder.

"Nnnngh." With a moan she rolled over and slowly sat up, brushing his hand away. Up close she looked terrible, her left eye now swollen completely shut. "I hate to admit this, Nara, but you were right. I've got nothing left." She winced. "I want you to carry Taro back to the village with your students. I'll stay behind and catch up when I can."

"No!" All four students had doubled back to join them, and tears were leaking from Taro's eyes. "I won't leave you, sensei! This is all my fault for getting hurt!"

"It doesn't matter whose fault it is." _And anyway_, thought Shikamaru,_ it's actually mine_. "I'm not leaving you here, Temari. I'll carry you, and Aki and Ishi will carry Taro until he's ready to walk again. Chinatsu will take your fan."

"No problem!" said Chinatsu brightly, bending down to pick up the huge weapon. She staggered a bit under its weight, but continued smiling as she regained her footing.

"At least it's not Ishi," said Aki dryly, tightening the straps on his pack. "Taro won't be so heavy."

"Ha ha." Ishi didn't look happy at the prospect of carrying another person, but chose to keep his displeasure to himself.

Shikamaru felt a stab of pride in all of them, the way they didn't hesitate to risk themselves for their comrades. Had he really taught them that, or was it something native to Konoha, something about the will of fire?

"You're being dumb," said Temari. "It doesn't make sense for five to die for the sake of one. I don't want your blood on my hands."

"Then stop arguing so we can leave." Shikamaru slid an arm across her back, and another under her knees, and stood up before she had a chance to fight him. She was heavier than an average woman, because of all her muscle, but not terribly difficult to lift with the assistance of chakra. More problematic was the way close contact with her made him blush, and how she stiffened in his arms and also turned red.

"Can't you two let up even when we're about to die?" muttered Ishi, before pointedly turning away.

"Yeah, you should really just admit you like each other already," said Chinatsu. "This tension us bad for all of us."

Shikamaru's wasn't entirely surprised by these comments, given their earlier conversation, but Temari's mouth dropped open.

"What—" she began, before Aki cut her off.

"Where's Taro?"

"Taro?" she echoed.

"Yeah, where is he? Ishi and I can't pick him up if he's not here."

Shikamaru, Temari, and the Academy students scanned the woods all around them, turning in place and even looking up into the tree branches.

Taro was gone.

* * *

More precious minutes wasted, as Shikmaru conducted a fruitless search of the surrounding area.

"I don't get it," he said on returning to his comrades. "How could someone who's not even _genin_ level just disappear like that?"

Temari shook her head. "You're forgetting where he comes from. His clan were thieves. Sneaking around is about the only thing they did well, and they taught him to do it too. And his mimicry, even though it's most useful to imitate other people, also helps him blend in with his surroundings."

"But what's he after?" asked Ishi. "Why'd he run off like that?"

"You heard him," said Shikamaru. "He's been blaming himself for all this. My guess is that he's gone to fight the enemy and buy us more time."

Chinatsu's eyes widened. "Even while we ran, he kept cursing himself," she said. "I heard him, saying he was weak and a problem for Temari-sensei. He sounded really angry."

"Yeah, and seeing her collapse was the final straw."

"But, since he can't really fight, if he meets the enemy..."

"He'll die." Shikamaru rolled his head back, feeling his body's aches and pains, its exhaustion and lack of chakra. "Guess that leaves me with no other choice, then. I didn't want to engage these people, but I'll just have to go after him. You four will keep moving toward Konoha."

"No." Temari's voice was harsh. "Taro's made his choice, Shikamaru. You're the only functional shinobi we've got, and if you leave these kids behind there won't be anyone left to protect them. We should use whatever time Taro wins for us to get home."

For a moment nobody said anything, and Shikamaru looked down at the top of Temari's bowed head, where leaves and sticks were caught in her blonde hair. "You don't mean that," he said finally.

She looked up then, and though her eyes were full of anguish they were perfectly dry. "It's the right decision. It's good strategy, like _shogi _– a pawn dies to save the other pieces."

He crouched down to face her. "You're the one who told me that life isn't exactly like _shogi_. And Taro's no pawn. We don't know _what_ he is, or what he'll be, because he's just a kid. That's why a village's children are its most important resource."

"But that applies to these kids too. I haven't got any chakra left, Shikamaru – I can't protect them if you leave. Taro will just have to fend for himself." She spoke the words as if they hurt her.

"Um…" Chinatsu said hesitantly, raising her hand like she was in a classroom, "If … if chakra is the problem, couldn't we use some of the things you taught us during our lessons, sensei? You said that there's a fungus that gives humans chakra when eaten."

It took him a moment to register what she was saying, and then it hit him. The fungus was called _ikikoke_, and it grew at the base of oak trees from very early spring until late fall. There was probably some to be found even in this season.

He stood up, feeling a wild sense of hope. "It's rust-colored," he said urgently. "It grows on oak trees, near the ground. You three find as much as you can, now! And stay together, and in my sight!"

They scurried to obey him, while he tore over to the nearest oak and began frantically scanning its roots. His mind, oddly sluggish and preoccupied lately, had abruptly started working again. Something danced on the rim of his consciousness, an understanding he couldn't yet grasp. But he'd get it sooner or later, and he was dimly beginning to see a way forward. _There_, just above the muddy ground, was a little reddish stain. With the edge of a _kunai_ he scraped it up and wiped it in a bit of cloth; it was indeed _ikikoke._

He moved on to the next oak. "I've found some," he said over his shoulder to Temari. "We'll have you back on your feet in no time."

"So I can protect your students while you go off to die? That's a terrible idea, Shikamaru."

He grinned down at the new patch of fungus he'd just found. "I have no intention of dying," he replied. "I meant for you to watch the students while you were out of commission, but if we can get you back in fighting form, then the whole plan changes." He deposited some more _ikikoke_ in the cloth. "By myself against two powerful Sound-nin, I'd probably die. But together we'll be more than a match for them. We'll kill them, rescue Taro, get the research back, and meet the kids back at the gates of Konoha."

He turned to find her wide-eyed with surprise. "But … if the students don't come with us to battle … how are they supposed to get back to the village?"

"Good question." He rose, strode over to her, and handed her the cloth with its little cargo of fungus. "Eat that. It tastes nasty, and we'll have to find a lot more, but it's a start. Meanwhile, I'm going to call a guide for the kids." He put his fingers to his mouth and whistled peculiarly, with a long sibilant note that sounded more animal than human.

Temari was gagging over _ikikoke_'s putrid taste when Shikamaru's whistle made her jump. "What—?"

"You'll see. There ought to be some of them around here, this close to the village."

He resumed his search for the fungus, keeping one eye on the foraging Academy students. After ten minutes he signaled them to return, which they did with small quantities of _ikikoke_ cupped in their hands. "Give that to Temari," he told them. "It ought to be just enough."

They did so, and Temari gathered it all together in one lump and chewed and swallowed it rapidly. "I already feel different," she reported after taking a drink to wash it down. "My chakra is beginning to return."

"I think it takes a few minutes for the full effect," said Shikamaru. "And you won't get back to full strength. And one more thing – _ikikoke _is poisonous."

Temari gave a cough and began sputtering. "Wh-what? _Poison_?"

Almost, her discomfort was funny. Had the situation not been so dire Shikamaru might have let it go on a bit longer. "It won't kill you," he explained. "It'll just make you sick in a few hours. If Ino was here she'd be able to combine it with other plants to negate the effects, but I don't know how to do that. We'll just have to finish our work before you start throwing up."

She glared, stood up, and snatched up her fan. No question about it, she was feeling better. "Then let's get started," she spat. "If we finish off the Sound-nin quickly enough, I might even have enough time to give you a black eye to match mine."

Shikamaru grinned wryly back at her. "Taro will appreciate that."

"Wait, she's going with you?" asked Ishi. "I thought the point of his fungus stuff was to make her strong enough to protect _us_."

"No, you'll head back to the village on your own. With me and Temari engaging the enemy, you shouldn't have to worry about encountering any hostile ninja. The only obstacles will be natural ones, which I think you can handle."

"What if we get lost?" asked Aki.

"You won't. I've arranged for you to have a guide." Shikamaru pointed past them, into the forest where a pair of tall shadowy figures could be seen. They drew closer, moving with the assured silence of clouds, until everyone could see them clearly: A pair of deer, an antlered buck and a soft-eyed doe, whose heads stood taller than Shikamaru and whose brown hides looked like velvet.

"Whoa," breathed Aki. "Are these yours, Shikamaru-sensei?"

"Not exactly. But we have a good working relationship." He addressed the deer: "Take these kids back to the village. If anything happens, try to come find me."

The buck's ear twitched, and the doe moved to stand beside Chinatsu. Carefully the little girl reached up to stroke her powerful neck.

Shikamaru took the deer's movements as a sign they understood. "That's good enough for now. You three take off. Move fast, but don't take any risks, and don't stop until you see the gates of Konoha. Once you're there I want you to go straight to the Hokage and report what's happened, so she can send out a relief squad. I'm counting on you!"

"Right!" they chorused in unison, and jogged away, flanked by the buck and doe.

"_Shika_maru," said Temari thoughtfully. "I never got that before – you're some kind of deer-man."

He shrugged. "I guess you could put it that way. But now we've got to find Taro and the Sound-nin. Any ideas?"

"They'll be close by, since they were aiming to cut us off. As for the direction…" She trailed off, staring vacantly at a spot on the ground. Her hand shot out to grasp Shikamaru's arm painfully. "Look there, Shikamaru! It's back!"

He followed her eyes and saw a gray squirrel, standing on its hind legs and gesturing in a most unnatural way. "Is it _pointing_?"

"It seems to be pointing southeast." Temari shook her head. "But that's crazy! It's just an animal!"

The squirrel responded to her comment by jumping in place and gesturing even more forcefully.

"It's not acting like any animal I ever saw," said Shikamaru. "We haven't got anything else to go on. Let's go southeast."

The squirrel dropped down to all fours and twitched its tail happily.

Temari frowned. "Are you sure that's wise? We can't afford to waste time."

Shikamaru thought hard. "We already said the animals might by spies for the enemy. If that's the case, and the Sound-nin are trying to engage us before we reach the village, then they have every reason to point us to their location. If it's not the case, then …"

"Then what?"

"I don't know. Something else is driving the animals, or it's all just coincidence. There's no guarantee this will work, but I think we've got to try. It … feels right, somehow."

Hearing his own words, he could hardly believe what he'd just said. He wasn't the kind to operate on instinct, especially when instinct seemed objectively crazy.

Temari eyed him thoughtfully. After a moment she nodded. "All right, then. Like you said, there's nothing else to go on anyway. If your gut tells you to follow the squirrel, then that's what we'll do."

Come to think of it, mused Shikamaru as they sprinted southeast, this whole operation was uncharacteristic for him. Here he was, disregarding the cold-blooded rules of the shinobi world to save a little boy who hated him, running into battle against an unknown foe with a depleted comrade, and following the advice of possibly rabid forest animals. And he was doing it all because it_ felt right_.

It was insane.

Temari was the only possible explanation. She'd driven Taro to extremes, and now she was having the same effect on him. Whether that was a good or bad thing, only time would tell. Time, and the outcome of this mission, because it would all be moot if Taro died, the last casualty of an old war.

**A/N: Apologies for the long delay in posting this chapter. Real life is an impediment to fan fiction ...**


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